This matched pair of mid-20th-century sandpainting-inspired panels entered a private collection in 2024 following acquisition through a regional auction house in Cornwall.
Created using natural desert sand, these works are permanent adaptations of Navajo (Diné) ceremonial imagery — not ritual objects themselves, but educational and artistic interpretations produced at a moment when traditionally ephemeral practices were being translated into material form.
One panel centres on a Holy Person associated with healing and balance; the other evokes cosmic and elemental power through a bird-like, radial composition. Read together, they reflect Indigenous concepts of harmony, reciprocity, and the relationship between human presence and the natural world.
Objects like these sit at the intersection of history, ethics, and responsibility — reminding us that preservation is never neutral, and meaning is carried not only through images, but through context.
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