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THE FIRE WITHIN Vincent Atherton
+ Errol Lloyd
“Powah” Atherton
Cavin-Morris Gallery NEW YORK, NEW YORK
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VINCENT ATHERTON (1924-2007)
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ERROL LLOYD “POWAH” ATHERTON (1961- 2012)
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JOURNAL ENTRY: VINCENT ATHERTON RANDALL MORRIS, AUGUST 2017
Tonight I am standing on a hill overlook-
not the wild haired old man I had met for the
ing the water outside Port Maria in St. Mary’s
first time the year before. This man in the cof-
Parish where Atherton lived. There are fireflies
fin had been carefully groomed and besuited
and stars and great expressionist dark clouds
and one could sense that in the ceremonies and
that muffle and render occult the excited ener-
celebrations that had been held all the previ-
gy of the lightning behind it. A breeze is blow-
ous week while he lay in state at his house, the
ing and it is like a lover whispering everything
spirit that had occupied that flesh was well on
in particular against your neck. I am drinking
its way to the original Homeground. This was
guava and pineapple juice and thinking about
the shell left behind.
Vincent Atherton the Carver.
Wayne and I went to Vincent Ather-
Raphael Atherton, a son I hadn’t met
before, the oldest son, an ex policeman, was
ton’s funeral today. Was in a 7th Day Adven-
dressed in a white shirt suit and white patent
tist church but none of the Athertons are
leather shoes. He was sitting next to Leroy
Adventists. There was one local pastor and
Atherton who wore a new black suit and was
two visiting deacons. Atherton lay in a bright
holding in his hand an old tattered copy of our
candy-flake purple coffin covered with floral
(Waynes and mine) exhibition from 1996 “Re-
wreaths. He had 15 children, 5 sons and five
demption Songs.” Raphael leaned over and told
daughters survived. They were all present ex-
me that his father had told him he wanted to be
cept Lloyd who was at the house. Lloyd is the
remembered somehow for his carving and his
one most like his father.
works and Raphael at the time had wondered how that could ever happen but when he came
As we walked into the small but airy
back to Jamaica two years later Redemption
Church, ventilated by rows of fans mounted
Songs had been published and his father was
on the walls, the electric keyboard was being
known. This had been a major life-affirming
set up by a young musician. He tested it with a
thing on his own personal path. He repeated
pre-set of Hard Day’s Night. We walked up the
this when he got up to do the eulogy except
center aisle and looked in the coffin but it was
he even remembered the page numbers his
5 father’s photograph and words appeared on.
Again I was reminded of the delicate
When I looked back at the text again I wished
path we in the art world walk through these
it could have been the expanded version I am
people’s lives. It had never even occurred to
working on now. It has been over ten years
me remotely that the patriarch would be af-
since that time till this great man died and in all
fected by the few words I had written for him. I
that time there was a long section written on
had called him enigmatic in the text and he was
him by Wayne in Prophets and Messengers but
still enigmatic to me now. Sylvester Woods,
still nothing in a major book and I am thinking
Ras Dizzy, Leonard Daley, and Vincent Ath-
this was a major crime. So I was grateful, very
erton are all gone. We are in the presence of
grateful to hear Raphael Atherton’s words,
an art historical and cultural changing of the
thinking I am reaffirmed also in my need to
guard.
continue to write about these people and still struggle to catch as many of them alive in their
Of course I have no worries whatsoever
own time as I can. In a way then writing itself
that other self-taught artists are out there and
becomes an act of libation.
will be found in Jamaica. This country exudes creativity from every pore, from the endless
It was a good feeling to hear his family
praise him for his role as a Carver. Atherton was a bush doctor, a role too complex to fully explain here. Even the pastor remembered his command of gathering and dispensing healing herbs. He was not a church-going man, his church was the bush. The pastor pointed out that the first carving by Vincent Atherton he had ever seen was a merry go round the old man had made for the local schoolyard. I kind of wished I could have been a fly on the tree at the Nine Night Ceremony the week before to see the communities less formal responses to the man’s death.
delight of its street signs to the painting and patterns on the surfaces of its buildings to its
6 unending wordplay in speech and song. As in
mented with wood structures, some in bizarre
the US the forms will change and our expecta-
shapes and then brightly painted with enamels.
tions will always be sidestepped. One can never
The Hemphill in my head was positively danc-
be too complacent here for too long. The next
ing with excitement. It was what will happen
to last hymn was sung to the tune of Finiculi
and still does happen in Jamaica over and over
Finicula and I knew it would be a great mistake
again once you learn the ancient ceremony
to sell this funny old world short.
called “Stopping the Car”. You drive along an innocuous road and you see a sign that says
A few days ago we were driving down
Helicopters and so you stop the world and
one of the most commercial anonymous roads
investigate and instantly you have something
in Jamaica near Negril and we saw a sign that
new and deep added to your world. Several
simply said: Helicopters. I didn’t take a picture
days later you are standing in front of a bright
of the sign and I am wishing now of course that
purple coffin which holds the body of a cultur-
I had. But we stopped. We did stop and asked
al artist elder singing a hymn to the tune of
this bright eyed woman where the helicopters
Finiculi Finicula.
were. She pointed around the side and we saw this little structure no bigger than a voting
Vincent Atherton’s carvings are made
booth and on it was a metal cutout flat heli-
to flail off evil in any of its forms. They are
copter brightly painted and nailed to the door.
expressionistic amulets. His herbs were to heal
It actually was a pretty damn good helicopter
the body from the vagaries of what people
cutout and it was also a pretty damn good Bert
in Jamaica have to do in order to survive. His
Hemphill moment.
carvings were for repelling evil and attracting good. He started carving late in life yet it is so
She asked if we wanted to go in and we
obvious from the confidence of his hand that
said of course we wanted to go in and we had
he was not unsure or insecure about what he
to get out of her way so she could pull the door
made. Yet they look unlike anything made in
open and we went in after she turned on the
Jamaica since the time of its premier inhabi-
light and there were three or four shelves on
tants: the Taino who either went maroon with
two walls of the room filled with hand made
those who wouldn’t be slaves or else commit-
helicopters. They were made of gourds supple-
ted suicide rather than give in to the colonial-
7 ists and the slave drivers. They were gone by the 17th Century. But they used the same materials as Vincent Atherton and other vernacular artists did later. Lignum Vitae, Cedar, all the indigenous flora that is still growing on this lush island. They painted on cave walls. Some of Vincent Atherton’s carvings look like what was painted on those walls. Eccentric minimal faces. But they also look like the three dots on coconuts which Jamaican folklore sees as eyes. The saying is : The coconut has three eyes, it sees you before you see it.
Vincent Atherton’s ancestral seal in his son’s yard. All site photos in this catalog are from Lloyd’s yard.
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VINCENT ATHERTON, Untitled (Bust, Arms Raised in a ‘V’), c. 1980s Cedar, 33.5 x 26 x 9 inches, 85.1 x 66 x 22.9 cm, ViA 47
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VINCENT ATHERTON, Untitled (Head), 1980s Cedar, 15.5 x 10 x 8.5 inches, 39.4 x 25.4 x 21.6 cm, ViA 36
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VINCENT ATHERTON, Vessel, c. 1980s Cedar, 20 x 8 x 4 inches, 50.8 x 20.3 x 10.2 cm, ViA 20
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VINCENT ATHERTON, Untitled (Three Faces), c. 1980s Cedar, 21 x 7.5 x 5.25 inches, 53.3 x 19.1 x 13.3 cm, ViA 26
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VINCENT ATHERTON, Untitled (figure), 1980s Cedar, 24 x 16 x 8 inches, 61 x 40.6 x 20.3 cm, ViA 46
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VINCENT ATHERTON, Untitled (white standing figure), 1980s Cedar, 31.5 x 8 x 6 inches, 80 x 20.3 x 15.2 cm, ViA 45
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VINCENT ATHERTON, Spirit Figure (Two Pieces), 1996 Cedar, 17 x 11 x 10 inches, 43.2 x 27.9 x 25.4 cm, ViA 35
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VINCENT ATHERTON, Horned Helmet, 2002 Cedar, 17 x 11 x 9.5 inches, 43.2 x 27.9 x 24.1 cm, ViA 37
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VINCENT ATHERTON,
Cedar, 8 x 16.5 x 15 inche
, Untitled (Helmet), c. 1980s
es, 20.3 x 41.9 x 38.1 cm, ViA 30
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VINCENT ATHERTON, Staff, c. 1990s Cedar, 38 x 1 x 1.5 inches, 96.5 x 2.5 x 3.8 cm, ViA 43
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VINCENT ATHERTON, Protection for the End of the Century, 1999 Cedar, 37.5 x 8 x 2 inches, 95.3 x 20.3 x 5.1 cm, ViA 44
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VINCENT ATHERTON, Untitled (serrated), c. 1980s Cedar, 27 x 8.5 x 2 inches, 68.6 x 21.6 x 5.1 cm, ViA 29
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VINCENT ATHERTON, Vessel, c. 1980s Wood, 21 x 10.5 x 13 inches, 53.3 x 26.7 x 33 cm, ViA 7
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VINCENT ATHERTON, Cross, c. 1980s Cedar, 16.25 x 7.5 x 4 inches, 41.3 x 19.1 x 10.2 c m, ViA 8
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VINCENT ATHERTON, Bird Vessel, 2006 Cedar, 17 x 11 x 10 inches, 43.2 x 27.9 x 25.4 cm, ViA 33
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VINCENT ATHERTON, Mask, c. 1980s Cedar, 14 x 8.5 x 15 inches, 35.6 x 21.6 x 38.1 cm, ViA 39
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VINCENT ATHERTON, Pro
Cedar, 10.5 x 12 x 15.5 inches,
otection Helmet, c. 1980s
, 26.7 x 30.5 x 39.4 cm, ViA 40
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VINCENT ATHERTON, Untitled (Figure), c. 1980s Cedar,15.5 x 6 x 6 inches, 39.4 x 15.2 x 15.2 cm, ViA 38
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VINCENT ATHERTON, Effigy, c. late 1990s Cedar, 11 x 6 x 2 inches, 27.9 x 15.2 x 5.1 cm, ViA 17
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VINCENT ATHERTON, Protection for the New Century, c. 1980s Cedar, 20 x 8 x 10 inches, 50.8 x 20.3 x 25.4 cm, ViA 41
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JOURNAL ENTRY: ERROL LLOYD “POWAH” ATHERTON RANDALL MORRIS, AUGUST 2017
It was a yam roast of a day when we
left to go southwest a bit from Port Maria to visit Lloyd Atherton. The last time I had seen him was on a similarly sun-drenched day last summer. I had been very excited by what I had seen, but was so distracted by all the parts that I felt I hadn’t paid enough attention to the whole. Although he is a second generation carver Lloyd has marked out a distinctly
rasta though he does have neck-length locks,
different place for himself in the art world that
glyphs, and seals placed all around the yard
seems to be more connected to the bush than
with various types of offerings and arrange-
his father. But even more significantly for me, I
ments on them. Much of his iconography and
feel Lloyd’s yard is a direct tie-in with the yard
personal sense of writing recurs enough that
shows of the Southern United States.
future visits will be needed to focus on them and come up with some way of interpretation.
Lloyd Atherton wastes no time pulling
you into his visions. You cannot go into his
There is nothing accidental or random in this yard.)
yard without first crossing a stone laid into the ground at the gate marked with warding callig-
We waited outside the gate for him and
raphy.
then there he was striding toward us looking like a lion in his kingdom from the Burning
The gate itself is strikingly painted in
Spear song. Muscular, full bearded with just the
black with punched out symbols and others
beginnings of white showing through here and
created by laying on red tape. Crosses, num-
there, a cord around his neck with two mule
bers and any number of kalunga signs, circles
teeth on it, plaid shorts worn well beneath his
with crosses are everywhere. On the gate
lean belly, blue plastic sandals and a big cau-
is painted the words Dred Love (He is not a
tious grin. Had to keep telling myself that with
46 his father passing in the last two weeks his life
three days before, the nine-night and other
was in the midst of many changes.
ceremonies performed to release and free the old man’s spirit were over and suddenly Lloyd
“Did you see that?” He pointed up into
was the one of the five Atherton sons who
the large tree that nearly abutted his gate. I
seemed to hold the old man’s legacy of herbs,
looked up and there was a human figure hang-
power carvings and spirituality. In fact his nick-
ing by the neck wearing a turban and an over-
name is ‘Powah.’
sized shirt. Next to it in classic Yardshow 101 style dangled a truck tire slowly turning in a
There was that feeling of beneficent
delicious breeze. We hadn’t even gotten inside
tingling again as I realized that once again
the gate yet! The figure seemed to be fully
I had stepped into a place unlike any other
carved under the clothes. He chuckled softly
known place on this island. Not even close to
as he saw my surprise. “What do you call it?”
art for art’s sake but art made for its original
I asked, cringing as the words left my mouth
meanings and from an intentionality formed
knowing I was going to get one of those ex-
by culture and iconoclasm because it wasn’t
pected and totally understated answers. “Oh,”
dictated by any sort of immediate traditional
he said, “It’s a scarecrow.”
form. Yet it reached out in the world. Yet it connected with those yards in other places.
Of course it was more than that. Don’t
For me this is the quintessence of what I mean
fool yourself for a second. It isn’t like we were
by homeground. Some might call it the racial
standing in a cornfield waiting for a murder of
unconscious but to me it is very conscious in
crows to swoop in picking off the crops. This
the sense of awareness and wakefulness. The
was St. Mary, a parish known for its higher
spring that feeds creativity here is thousands
percentages of Revival Zion, Pukkumina, Con-
of years old and is not dictated by materials or
vince, Maroons, balmyards, and some Kumina.
fashion but rather by deep interwoven genea-
There could be no mistake about the constant
logical needs and human hardwiring. The hand
and never-ending presence of double-valenced
that puts the yard together is the artists and
meanings here. In many ways this was a new
the creative talent that shapes the space is
beginning for us in initiating dialogue with
the artists and the language he speaks is his
Lloyd Atherton. His father had been buried
cultures’. And when it is bigger than or more
47 special than the ordinary we call it art. As Paul Arnett says in Souls Run Deep there are many quiet yardshows as well. Lloyd Atherton’s yard is not quiet.
In fact Jamaica is not a quiet culture.
Earlier in the day I stopped off to finally see if it was cowfoot day at the restaurant and Wayne went off to get a machine part and I stood waiting for him on the main street in Port Maria. It is a small town. But if I closed my eyes the place was a wave of sound. I could listen to it like musique concrete. Not so much traffic sounds but human. Arguments, laughter, children, higglers calling, jitneys calling for passengers, wandering merchants selling batteries and plastic bags of juice, men and women flirting, and the babble of madmen and madwomen. Noisy and very much alive. And so it isn’t such a surprise to me that the spirit world reciprocates and echoes this noise with its constant presence on other planes. It is languages’ life without or beyond the written word. Mankind is always in a boisterous dialog with the ancestors. Word sounds have power.
As we walked past the gate into Lloyd’s
yard for a few moments I thought that I was actually seeing the spirits and hearing the sharp tiny buzz of their barely articulate voices. They
48 were all around me and I could feel the wind of
There are certainly larger and more
their passing against my neck and face.
elaborate yard shows than Lloyd Athertons’.
Then Wayne said ‘bees’ and Lloyd said ‘bees’
But the intimacy of the space has the effect of
and pointed over to the corner of the small
making the whole thing seem more shrine like
yard where he had two hives both painted
even though he lives in a small elevated shack
with symbols and faces. “Don’t wave your
about eight or nine feet square. The first thing
arms around.” And I’m thinking to myself little
you see when you get in, after you reach men-
cynical thoughts like ok ok if it were too easy
tal equilibrium from the bees, is a loose almost
you’d be suspicious…there is always going to
basket like structure where he keeps a group of
be something that reminds you of your hu-
his larger carvings willy-nilly mostly open to the
man condition whether it’s the heat or mud or
elements and insects. I was instantly reminded
mosquitos etc. The bees were everywhere and
of the Yupik masks or the Zuni War Gods slowly
I do have to say they animated the landscape in
returning to the earth.
such a way that nothing was static. I cut back my art world propensity towards grand sweep-
I peered out between the bees and
ing gestures and joy dancing.
forced myself to slow down and contain my excitement so I wouldn’t miss anything. I of
You walk through Lloyd’s gate and you
course felt a buzz that went way beyond the
are immediately immersed in spirit languages
teeming apiary. My disappointments about the
and spirit writing and iconography. It is tacked
Jamaican exhibition falling through were gone
to the trees and painted on the buildings and
and one year later I could see things much more
scattered on the ground. I wouldn’t swear to
clearly.
the fact that Lloyd is literate but he has a very finely tuned in sense of the iconic power of
Lloyd was excited we were there and
inherent in the word sign. His shack is splashed
Wayne and I both picked up a new openness to
with words, pieces of zinc are painted with
our presence in him. It wasn’t so much about
what he says are the watchful faces of an-
the selling of carvings and because of his fa-
cestors making sure the yard is under cosmic
ther’s presence in our book Redemption Songs
scrutiny.
and the mention of it at the funeral. He seemed to have just as much need to tell us things
49 as we needed to hear it. Later on Wayne and I
hanced offerings that beckon and invite
agreed that it seemed he was taking his role as
the spirits in. We had known that Atherton
his father’s successor and cultural gatekeeper
senior considered his pieces attraction
very seriously.
and repelling devices for spirits but calling
them seals placed them in a Jamaican per-
On a table off to the side were an al-
tar-like arrangement of plants, bottles with
spective and added depth to those words.
liquids in them, a mesh basket covered with
It also opened up discourse on other carv-
one of his fathers sculptures. In a few words
ers and this absolutely New World manifes-
Lloyd opened a major discourse about Jamaican
tation of older forms.
religion and about the intentionality behind his work and his father’s work. He called his father’s
This is American art and an import-
sculpture a seal. Bang! Him calling the sculpture
ant part of our understanding of the Afri-
a seal answered volumes on why and what he
can Diaspora. It is time that serious atten-
and his father carve. Seals are spiritually en-
tion be paid to it.
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ERROL LLOYD “POWAH” ATHERTON, Untitled, 2006 Metal, 39 x 28 x 4 inches, 99.1 x 71.1 x 10.2 cm, LAt 47
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54
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ERROL LLOYD “POWAH” ATHERTON, Untitled,
c. 2000 - 2005
Metal, 18 x 17 inches, 45.7 x 43.2 cm, LAt 41
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ERROL LLOYD “POWAH” ATHERTON, Untitled,
c. 2000 - 2005
Metal, 19.5 x 12.25 inches, 49.5 x 31.1 cm, LAt 24
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ERROL LLOYD “POWAH” ATHERTON, Animal Spirit Plaque, c. 1980s Cedar, 40 x 7.5 x 1 inches, 101.6 x 19.1 x 2.5 cm, LAt 32
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ERROL LLOYD “POWAH” ATHERTON, Standing Woman, 2006 Cedar, 11.5 x 3.5 x 2.5 inches, 29.2 x 8.9 x 6.4 cm, LAt 7
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ERROL LLOYD “POWAH” ATHERTON, Standing Woman, 2006 Cedar, 12.5 x 4.5 x 2.5 inches, 31.8 x 11.4 x 6.4 cm, LAt 10
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ERROL LLOYD “POWAH” ATHERTON, Untitled,
c. 2000 - 2005
Metal, 18.25 x 12.25 inches, 46.4 x 31.1 cm, LAt 25
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ERROL LLOYD “POWAH” ATHERTON, Untitled,
c. 2000 - 2005
Metal, 21.5 x 13 inches, 54.6 x 33 cm, LAt 23
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ERROL LLOYD “POWAH” ATHERTON, Untitled,
c. 2000 - 2005
Metal, 16.75 x 11 inches, 42.5 x 27.9 cm, LAt 22
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ERROL LLOYD “POWAH” ATHERTON, Spirit Totem, 1997 Cedar, 51 x 13.5 x 2.5 inches, 129.5 x 34.3 x 6.4 cm, LAt 48
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ERROL LLOYD “POWAH” ATHERTON, Untitled, Early 1990s Cedar, 20 x 1 x 1 inches, 50.8 x 2.5 x 2.5 cm, LAt 15
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ERROL LLOYD “POWAH” ATHERTON, Untitled, 2003 Cedar, 25 x 3 x 2 inches, 63.5 x 7.6 x 5.1 cm, LAt 16
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ERROL LLOYD “POWAH” ATHERTON, Offering, 1997 Cedar, 36 x 7. 5 x 8 inches, 91.4 x 19.1 x 20.3 cm, LAt 35
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ERROL LLOYD “POWAH” ATHERTON, Effigy with Three Heads, 2000 Cedar, 33 x 4.5 x 5 inches, 83.8 x 11.4 x 12.7 cm, LAt 31
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ERROL LLOYD “POWAH” ATHERTON, Untitled (Figure), 1992 Cedar, 32.5 x 9 x 8 inches, 82.6 x 22.9 x 20.3 cm, LAt 29
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ERROL LLOYD “POWAH” ATHERTON, Effigy Woman, 2000 Cedar, 26 x 5 x 5 inches, 66 x 12.7 x 12.7 cm, LAt 30
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ERROL LLOYD “POWAH” ATHERTON, Untitled, Early 1990s Cedar, 10.5 x 1.5 x 2 inches, 26.7 x 3.8 x 5.1 cm, LAt 20
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ERROL LLOYD “POWAH” ATHERTON, Cross Spirits, 1996 Cedar, 24 x 10.5 x 1.5 inches, 61 x 26.7 x 3.8 cm, LAt 21
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ERROL LLOYD “POWAH” ATHERTON, Untitled,
c. 2000 - 2005
Metal, 19.5 x 12 inches, 49.5 x 30.5 cm, LAt 46
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ERROL LLOYD “POWAH” ATHERTON, Untitled,
c. 2000 - 2005
Metal, 21.25 x 16 inches, 54 x 40.6 cm, LAt 45
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ERROL LLOYD “POWAH” ATHERTON, Untitled,
c. 2000 - 2005
Metal, 7.5 x 7.25 inches, 19.1 x 18.4 cm, LAt 39
83
84
ERROL LLOYD “POWAH” ATHERTON, Untitled,
c. 2000 - 2005
Metal, 6.75 x 5.25 inches, 17.1 x 13.3 cm, LAt 40
85
86
ERROL LLOYD “POWAH” ATHERTON, Untitled,
c. 2000 - 2005
Metal, 18 x 16.25 inches, 45.7 x 41.3 cm, LAt 44
87
ERROL LLOYD “POWAH” ATHERTON, Untitled,
c. 2000 - 2005
Metal, 21.5 x 18 inches, 54.6 x 45.7 cm, LAt 43
88
ERROL LLOYD “POWAH” ATHERTON, Untitled, Metal, 9 x 8 inches, 22.9 x 20.3 cm, LAt 37
c. 2000 - 2005
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ERROL LLOYD “POWAH” ATHERTON, Untitled, Metal, 9 x 5 inches, 22.9 x 12.7 cm, LAt 36
c. 2000 - 2005
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91
ERROL LLOYD “POWAH” ATHERTON, Untitled,
c. 2000 - 2005
Metal, 17.25 x 13.25 inches, 43.8 x 33.7 cm, LAt 42
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ERROL LLOYD “POWAH” ATHERTON, Forked Staff, 1997 Cedar, 66 x 8.25 x 1.5 inches, 167.6 x 21 x 3.8 cm, LAt 49
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ERROL LLOYD “POWAH” ATHERT
Cedar, 9 x 27 x 3 inches, 22
TON, Eyes and Heart Plaque, 2004
2.9 x 68.6 x 7.6 cm, LAt 26
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ERROL LLOYD “POWAH” ATHERTON, Standing Figure, 2006 Cedar, 13.75 x 4 x 1.25 inches, 34.9 x 10.2 x 3.2 cm, LAt 8
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ERROL LLOYD “POWAH” ATHERTON, Figure with Two Heads, 2006 Cedar, 10 x 5.5 x 1.25 inches, 25.4 x 14 x 3.2 cm, LAt 9
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ERROL LLOYD “POWAH” ATHERTON, Untitled, c. Early 1990s Cedar, 21 x 2.5 x 3 inches, 53.3 x 6.4 x 7.6 cm, LAt 17
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Copyright © 2019 CAVIN-MORRIS GALLERY Cavin-Morris Gallery 210 Eleventh Ave, Ste. 201 New York, NY 10001 t. 212 226 3768 www.cavinmorris.com Catalog design: Sophie Friedman-Pappas Photography: Jurate Veceraite, Wayne Cox, and Randall Morris Text contributed by Randall Morris
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THE FIRE WITHIN