Artifact is a Work of Art

Artifact is a Work of Art

"No artifact is a work of art if it does not help to humanize us. Without art...our world would have remained a jungle.                 -  Bernard Berenson

Dr Abe V Rotor

On display at Living with Nature Center

San Vicente Botanical Garden  

San Vicente Ilocos Sur (Heritage Zone of the North RA 11645)

Key of an Ancestral Baol (wooden chest) 

Key to treasures of our ancestors

in wooden chest long kept,

now empty, or full still and hidden;

Or key to heaven's gate long lost,

or brought down to earth 

to end our endless search.

Remnant of a Old Nail

Nail rustling and crumbling, reminiscent 

of the passion on a mountain far away,

it's red dust riding on the wind to where

the faithful have long lost their way. 

 

 Bolt on Molave Wood (sagat) from an Ancestral House

Useless each without the other,

now free from their union;

what is freedom from one another,

at the loss of function? 

Burial Jar from Fuga Island

Sacred vessel desecrated

at the crossroad of faith,

where past and present divide

 at a narrow gate.

Canon Ball from a River Bed

A rolling stone gathers no moss, 

like a wheel down the river,

into perfect symmetry it grows,

into a canon ball of fire.  

Mt Pinatubo Rock, 1991 Eruption

Pinatubo's pyroclastic rock, 

shapeless until carved

 into figurine - or just a rock - 

 whatever purpose it may serve.

Glazed Rock from a Tobacco-Flue Curing Furnace

From sedimentary to metamorphic rock,

for eons man tried to copy nature;

limestone to marble, resin to amber,

carbon to diamond - and more.

Prehistoric Fossil (Unidentified) 

Molar of an Asian elephant likely,

for the museum and laboratory;

but who could tell it's one really,

unless confirmed by paleontology? 

Remnant of a Tree that Arose from a Broken Jar (Burnay)

Like the Phoenix bird rising out of the ashes,

this tree arose from the inside of a broken jar;

mythical indeed is a phenomenon unexplained 

where reality and fantasy meet from afar. ~