Notre Dame du Cosmos

Notre Dame du Cosmos, Ange Gardien, QC
Copper, steel, soil, cosmos plants, horsehair

Notre Dame du Cosmos

Having made shields for 7 years prior to this project, the art was informed by a few colliding concepts; the name of the local town (Guardian Angel); memories of so many roadside shrines from my Québec childhood; timing – I was in the process of creating the Women’s Monument Against Violence with  landscape architect, Mary Faught.  We were fully steeped in Gerde Werkerle’s ideas about “safe spaces” and this natural, yet hidden, corridor did not fall into that category.  Cresting the slope, ideas of a “protector beacon” sprang into vision.  Shapes of the full “mother-like” shield, with its spiraling belly and the yoni garden are all vessel forms that speak of  passage, transition and safety.  Built to harbour and transmit “good energy”, this shield stands as sentry for the guardian aspect within each of us.