Art and Ceremony

Performance artist Barbara T. Smith's work has always been involved with ceremony, ritual and spiritual transformation. In 1987 Smith was investigating shamanic practices with a Native American teacher. Having made acquaintance with artist Jose Arguelles at the time he began articulating ideas about the Harmonic Convergence, she became interested in the real possibilities of using certain aspects of performance in healing practices and in "reconnecting humans with nature in a balanced way." This essay, excerpted from a longer article, puts forth many of the principles that link her work to spiritual practice and align it with the most radically ephemeral strain of California art. —Eds.

The preconceived idea that all reality is a matter of cause and effect robs events of meaning. Healing requires an instant when time, which is ineluctably tied to entropy, is stilled or reversed.

—Gerald Epstein, Brain Mind Bulletin
May 1986

The emergence of performance art in the mid- to late '60s came from a bonding of Western art historical and cultural issues. Two particular ideas of the time were influential: the identification of the act of artmaking as the essence of creativity (as reflected in abstract expressionism), and the prominence of reductivism in mainstream science (as reflected in minimalism). Artists responded to these influences with an art expressed through the being of the artist, as both the carrier of the power and the expression of it. This new nontheatrical use of the body was both liberating and, paradoxically, the ultimate in super-individuated isolation. Reflecting, then, an instinctual longing for connection through meaningful ceremony and ritual long lost or trivialized, many artists began to create deep and profound self-generated ritual pieces. Out of the pain of the early work, which was truly sacrificial and shamanic in nature, new forms emerged. As the feminist movement developed, the work of many of the women led into a search for connection into feminine spirituality. The new language was also fed by the study and experience of many ancient disciplines, as well as a rich and sustaining feedback loop that consisted of actual spiritual experiences. We found the light only as we took each step.

The gradual realization of the dangerous threat to life on the planet, precipitated by the dominant culture's greed, ignorance, insensitivity and territorial power practices, made the link between feminism, spirituality and ecology an obvious one. The widespread recognition of the need and desire for an entirely new perception and method of living has long been connected by and expressed through the visionary insights of such early writers as Teilhard de Chardin and Marshall McLuhan, and more recently through the nonmaterialist and holographic realizations of leading-edge scientists, mathematicians and Native Americans. In many ways we have been in a New Age for some time. By capturing the power of the sun and daring the exploration of space, we have birthed a new being with a new responsibility to Earth Mother. From having seen her in her totally interdependent state, where it is impossible to take from one place without sacrificing or giving in another, we see the urgent need for healing and know it. The Noosphere, Teilhard de Chardin's "realm of total consciousness," is approaching.

It is not surprising that another visionary has connected us with our ancient past and the impending future, and finds in the data a link-up experience that is happening, will happen and must be if we are trying to make the bridge to a viable future. Artist and art historian Jose Arguelles became that voice for many in his book The Mayan Factor. There he set the focal uplink date at August 16 and 17,1987—the Harmonic Convergence of the calendar of days with the Mayan cycles of galactic time, and its perfect interface with the DNA of our genetic code. Thus we have passed into a new worldview where we have gone beyond our anchor in the solar system to an even more integrated connection in the galactic core. Whether or not this is accurately, objectively true relative to the Mayan calendar is not the point. It is metaphorically true, and a worldview becomes itself, with or without our tacit agreement, once there are enough people who hold that view. If it is a large enough macrostructure, with a deep enough resonant base in primal memory, it will gradually emerge to guide our salvation, especially as we live it.

Art functions, then, as the linkage between the archaic foundations with the macrostructure to which we are navigating, just as it did in the Renaissance—thus completing the law of "as above, so below," which is harmonic alignment. It is no accident that there is a widespread interest in remembering our ancient tribal past and connections to sacred ways long lost. Anthropologists used to call "quaint" and "superstitious" such beliefs that, without prayers and certain ritual practices, the sun might not come up. Now we see that we have for so long treated the earth as an inert thing to use and exploit, that she may in fact be dying and the sun might not come up for us.

The power of this type of work is in its gift of participation, vortex-building, healing, release and alignment toward the creation of the Harmonic Convergence of a living global consciousness. The audience for such work probably far exceeds the limited parameters of the art context. The ethic is communal and invites participation rather than object-oriented criticism. The leaders, rather than being stars, create a tool that works, that functions as a balancing healer. These actions will not fix things once and for all; they are not meant to do this. They are meant as a way of life that is constantly and actively keeping the tribe in balance. They call upon nearly lost techniques and traditions, and in new ways seek a language that is transcultural and speaks to all. They direct us to the open land, there to speak with our plant and animal brothers and sisters in reciprocal teaching and harmony. The message is that the Earth is alive, sacred, has much to give and teach. If you ask her she will tell you how to be with her, and how to receive what you need. She is in love with you and wants you to survive, but we must learn that what we take we must give back. There is no trash heap that is not now acting on our lives. Recycling is the law of life.

The two most sacred laws of the Native Americans:

All things are born of woman.
Pass no law or take no action that would harm the children or the child within, both now and in the distant future.

This essay originally appeared in High Performance magazine, Winter 1987.

Original CAN/API publication: September 2002