Tantra #1

Source catalog description

This description refers to material held by Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. Visual details below describe the original material.

Esteemed author and artist Barbara Chase-Riboud is celebrated for her unique abstract sculptures that combine traditional, as well as non-traditional materials, such as bronze, silk, rayon, cotton, and wool. She states, “I decided to use silk like you would use clay, sculpting it … because silk is such a strong material and it’s practically indestructible, like bronze is indestructible.” Tantra I is part of a tripartite series that invokes the Hindu goddess Shakti, whose various manifestations include creativity, female energy, cosmic consciousness, and power. The term tantra has numerous and complex meanings within Hindu and Buddhist traditions. Within the context of Chase-Riboud’s work, tantra may allude to doctrines associated with rituals, disciplines, meditation, and sexual practices composed as dialogues between Shakti and her male consort, Shiva. An abstract scuplture consisting of a mass of polished bronze shapes from which are suspended cascading cords of knotted silk.

Catalog date

1994

Recorded subjects

African American; Art; Hinduism; Sexuality; Spirituality; Women

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