Voodoo

More Mysterious Wings

 What are we looking at?

Imagine the surprise to open our blog to see (and read) Saretta's entry. How bizarre...

But it becomes more bizarre because I took this photo (and a video) last Thursday. I had come back on campus after our field trip to Moma, stepped out of the subway at the Columbia stop and headed up Broadway. Approaching around the heighth of Joe's Cafe (120th) were these wings near the base of the building. But they didn't just lay there. They were placed, even carefully so, and as I stepped closer, I noted there was also a dried geranium leaf nearby. Nothing special about that.  Then, finally I noticed a little flower in metal.

This was some kind of Natura Morte, I thought.

But it was all very shocking, because as Saretta has observed the wings seemed to have been stripped. It was hurtful to observe this and realize it hadn't been the work of a hungry predator. I love animals, so this was particularly upsetting. What was also strange was that no one stopped or seemed to notice.   But Saretta was looking... and observing too.

Then, Friday morning I had lunch with a good friend who is a particularly insightful woman. She's known for her "extreme" architectural photography and has travelled to every imaginable place. She began her career taking photos at major archeological digs in Greece and continued this for more than 10 years. In sum. She has seen a lot.  I was sure she would know something about these wings. So after lunch I took out my Iphone and asked about the photo. She glanced at it and asked me to put it away.

"That's Voodoo or some kind of black magic," she said.

I don't know of these things. I've looked on the internet and found nothing. So I looked at Saretta's photo again. The wings she discovered are lighter. They are also oriented with the wings facing toward the building. The darker ones I found Thursday appeared to have more bone attached. And again there were the additional objects that imparted an idea of being composed.  So what was I looking at? A different pair of wings?  A ritual? A statement of some kind...

It seems there is and was some kind of organization of these materials. Animal, plant, and mineral.

Towards what end, I don't know.