“Reliquary of the Eldergone”

#1

Usually considered a nuisance and resented as a sign of urban failure, these derelict houses are nevertheless the sacred remains of our own beginnings; they contain a visual record of anonymous yet significant lives contributing to the same continuum of which our own lives are a part. They are the dwellings of our Anasazi. The crumbling walls and flaking surfaces create a patina more than a century in the painting with colors and markings of every generation to occupy it. They say as much, if not more, about past lives than do most historical recreations and provide an opportunity to feel Timepassing. Ruins help in finding ones own place in the Great Mystery.

AND/OR
#2
Fully a third of the city’s population moved from Baltimore City in the 1990’s and their abandoned dwellings are seen from one side of town to the other. While the City sees these buildings as a nuisance and their demolition is often applauded Preservationists knowing their architectural value struggle to see them revived.
I remain struck how neither side seems to appreciate the spiritual and aesthetic value of ruins and almost never thinks of conserving them for the relics that they are.

The Anasazi preceded the Navajo and the later ones respected the physical remains of that earlier culture, those who had come before. I once sat in the roofless crumbling ruins of an Anasazi dwelling in Arizona that still had bits of pottery on the floor. I put my fingers in the marks made by the potter’s hands 8oo years before and had a feeling that I have never forgotten. I am reminded of it frequently when standing in the vacant dwellings, the reliquaries, of those who came before in Baltimore, my city, the city of my father and his.
The oldest buildings of Baltimore are more than academic examples of historic architecture but are the visual record of that Continuum of which our lives are a part. The ruins speak a visual message of Connexion.
The colors of Europe or the pastels of tropical buildings are no more exotic to me now than salmon brick covered with layers of “Baltimore catsup” red paint. Earlier Baltimoreans have left their marks on worn steps and moldings, left their colors in layers of wallpaper and paint. It is curious how we make pilgrimages to the ruins of churches or castles in Europe and the world’s fallen empires but hold contempt for these relics of those who made our city. Their homes are either in the way of the new or lost in well-intended efforts at “revitalization”.

The aesthetic and spiritual Connexion of ruins is not respected in a culture that believes “newer is better” and is more comfortable with recreations of history than the real thing. Where very little is held sacred.

#3 SHORTY:

Wayne Nield is a native Baltimore artist whose installations and wall pieces bear such titles as “Downtown My-town Comin’ Down ..” and “ Reliquary of the Eldergone”. These works have been seen at Maryland Art Place, Towson University, Washington Project for the Arts Creative Alliance and Evergreen. Most of these pieces have been about respecting the sense of place derived from an interaction of topography and historic arcitecture. His installations and mural can be seen throughout the Irish Shrine at Lemmon Street which utilized abandoned alley houses to honor B&O railroad families.
In a series on canvass entitled “Walls of the Reliquary” this same reverence for Baltimore’s ruins is explored with the colors and texture of timepassing.

QUOTE:
“The aesthetic and spiritual Connexion of ruins is not respected in a culture that believes “newer is better” and is more comfortable with recreations of history than the real thing. Where the ruins of those who came before are not held sacred.”