Sacred Art Catholic Saints and Candomble Gods in Modern Brazil Table Book

The Manager'southward Statement

By Pat Collins

I get-go heard Henry Glassie talking on Irish radio. Information technology was a night fourth dimension evidence called 'Arts This night' and the host was the poet Vincent Woods. They spoke for an 60 minutes; about folklore and fine art, his time in Ireland in the '70s, in Turkey in the '80s and his growing-up years in Virginia. It remains i of my most memorable radio experiences, upwardly there with football matches and the music of the tardily '70s and early '80s when we were tuning in to discover the audio of a larger globe. But Glassie in that hour, took me right back to the small world, the small-scale world that is in fact an everywhere – and to an acknowledgement that the appreciation for art is universal.

Pat Collins

A few weeks later I wrote to Henry (he doesn't do e-mail) and nosotros corresponded on and off for several years. It wasn't until 2016 that we finally met in person and I proposed the notion of a picture. Glassie is one of the most articulate and thought-provoking people I've ever met. His appointment with his material, with the people he encounters, the artists he stands with and his philosophical outlook - all coalesce in a very passionate and engaged individual.

In 2018, Henry and his wife, folklorist Pravina Shukla published a volume called 'Sacred Art: Cosmic Saints and Candomblé Gods in mod Brazil'.

We travelled with Henry and Pravina to Salvador in Bahia and to a pocket-sized pottery village chosen Maragojipinho and there we encountered dozens of artists who Henry and Pravina had spent so much time with over the previous decade.

The artists opened their doors to us because the trust had already been established and nosotros were able to spend time with them and capture their piece of work in real time. We spent two days with Rosalvo Santana in his front end room and filmed him as he made a saint from clay – the Nossa Senhora Desatadora dos Nós by hand and with the greatest attention and skill. We spent days wondering if we could track down the artist Samuel Rodrigues in the streets of Salvador. When nosotros did come across him, he took us to his male parent's forge, and we filmed him at work - in xxx intense minutes he fabricated a Candomblé God from fleck metal. It was like a operation, pure attention and concentration.

We also travelled with Henry and Pravina to N Carolina where so many slap-up potters live and piece of work. Once again, nosotros spent days observing them at work - Kate Johnston and her husband Daniel Johnston and the English potter Marking Hewitt every bit he fired up the kiln and worked for days and nights in searing heat.

During the filming, Henry ofttimes said he didn't care if he appeared in the film or not. I think he would have actually preferred if he wasn't in it at all - that the artists we filmed would get the full attending of the viewer. It was something I struggled with – because I wanted to capture the way I felt when I heard him speak on the radio that first fourth dimension. Though I did convince him to sit downward for i interview in Brazil information technology wasn't until we reached his home in Bloomington, Indiana that nosotros sat him downwards and spent ii days asking him questions.

It was a keen privilege to make this film. I experience the picture is a truthful collaboration and I couldn't have made information technology without Henry's input and generosity. His outlook and ideas and his writings are the reason this film exists. I promise it brings his of import work to wider attending and that pocket-sized communities everywhere see their ain feel mirrored in the works and artists on display. Artists everywhere express the character and personality of their communities.

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Source: https://folklore.indiana.edu/alumni-giving/newsletter/summer-2020/emeriti-news/collins.html

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