Artwork Details
- Title
- Feather Fetish #2
- Artist
- Date
- 1985
- Location
- Not on view
- Dimensions
- 6 1⁄2 x 11 1⁄8 x 10 7⁄8 in. (16.5 x 28.2 x 27.6 cm)
- Credit Line
- Museum purchase through the Richard T. Evans Fund
- Mediums Description
- stoneware with gold luster and parakeet feathers
- Classifications
- Keywords
- Abstract
- Object — other — feather
- Object Number
- 2001.2
Artwork Description
Feather Fetish #2 is part of a series Ken Shores started in 1968 after a trip to Peru. The combination of clay and feathers recalls fetish objects that feature in many religions worldwide. These objects are man-made items created from natural materials like stone or ivory and are believed to hold supernatural powers. Shores often encased his fetish objects in small, glass vitrines, which emphasize the preciousness of the object by limiting our access to it. Here, the ceramic form both protects and reveals a cluster of delicate parakeet feathers at the center. In many native cultures, feathers are regarded as valuable and beautiful, a fact Shores reinforces by adding gold luster to the clay.