Relics from the forbidden fruit
Artist's assemblages honor nature.
Inspired by the reliquaries of the Middle Ages, Shaw Stuart has taken ordinary “relics” from nature and enshrined them in richly embellished containers. Peach pits, thistles, dried rose hips, insects, wasp nests, and apple seeds take the place of honor in works from the series “Reverence for Nature.” Saints’ bones are replaced by literal and figurative bones: Relics from a Royal Feast includes chicken bones and lobster shells, as well as a corn cob and a nut shell. Stuart says, “even the ‘humblest’ of natural things deserve respect.”
