Elizabeth Phelps Meyer: Metanoia at Real Art Ways

Met·a·noi·a (noun): A transformative change of heart; especially a spiritual conversion.

One thousand and eighty hand-thrown ceramic bowls, each containing a miniature fractured landscape, hundreds of hand-painted leaves woven through a paper and clay forest, twelve puppets, and a trilogy of videos set in a fictional art gallery constitute works that explore the transformative power of color.

“Metanoia” will culminate on January 16, 2016 when Meyer will offer all 1,080 red ceramic bowls from the exhibit to the public. Participants will have the opportunity to receive a bowl and in exchange make a donation toward the rebuilding of the Ky-Nying Shedrub Ling and Nagi Gompa monastery and nunnery, located in the Kathmandu valley of Nepal.

A massive earthquake devastated Nepal in April of 2015. Meyer, who lived in the country in 2007, was moved to create a work to benefit a place for which she feels profound love. The color of the bowls is rooted in the vermilion powder (“sindoor”) that adorns sculptures at sacred sites in Nepal. Each bowl is filled with a mix of sindoor powder, red sand, and occasional clay remnants that are symbolic of the land in a country that needs to be rebuilt.