ABSTRACT
Entering the Otis Art Institute gallery in Los Angeles in 2013, a gauzy material hung in front of the author forcing his gaze upward. Bottle trees, according to oral and written histories as early as 1776, come from Kongo practices and have been found in the Caribbean and across the deep South from Texas to South Carolina. Often attached to crepe myrtle trees, the bottles are the remnants of a spiritual tradition that recognizes human life to be a part of continuum connected to and affected by the unseen world. The umbilical bottle tree branch in Undone works as a virtual crossroads, cosmogram, and nkisi object, all of which can act as altars. In that sense, some of Saar’s works simulate charms and cosmograms for knowing systems from which they draw references. It speaks of art and personal histories and the lives of women, but also it whispers of sanctuaries and secrets and collective privacy to those who know.
