Betye Saar
The Destiny of Latitude & Longitude
2009
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Betye Saar
The Destiny of Latitude & Longitude
2009
Physical Qualities
Painted metal bird cage, synthetic hair, coated paper globe, metal hand mirror, painted wooden boats with canvas sails, metal lock, glitter covered bird ornament, wire, 54 × 43 × 20 1/2 in. (137.2 × 109.2 × 52.1 cm.)
Credit Line
Purchase with exchange funds from the Pearlstone Family Fund and partial gift of The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc.
Object Number
2020.55
We strive to remember how we (both we as people and we as a nation reckoning with our original sin) got here so that we may find our way. Two model sailboats drift within a wire-mesh cage, navigating a wavy sea of silver hair along with a miniature globe positioned to show the Atlantic Ocean. Wire healing hands and a nesting raven connect the scene to the world of spirits. These symbols confront a traumatic past by evoking the nightmare and terrors of the Middle Passage, the journey for enslaved captured Africans over the Atlantic. The work’s title, in conjuring destiny and orientation, points to a transcendent future secured through perseverance. The sculpture testifies to the continuous entrapment of a global economy built on the foundation of trading stolen peoples.
The Baltimore Museum of Art by purchase, 2020; Roberts Projects
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