From earliest times rituals dealing with life and death have been integral to the human condition. Early cave paintings symbolically sustained life by means of simple images representing the capture or killing of animals. This process may have liberated the spirit of the animal, as well. Diverse burial practices have evolved over time, as well, ranging from simple to elaborate, with or without accompanying identifying symbols or markers. Some cultures have practiced cremation, while other cultures have gone to great lengths to preserve or mummify bodies. Other cultures have moved symbolically beyond the physical fact of death to free the spirit of the deceased, such as in ancient Pre Columbian Americas. Such transformations have resulted in an array of ritual practices, including the recognition and development of sacred spaces. Such practices and beliefs encompassed the use of precise astrological calculations to define the orientation of particular architecture, to situate entire sites and to distinguish, or even construct, sacred landscapes.
The word cross is identified as an upright with a transverse beam, or the intersection of two directions, as well as the ability to move or pass from one condition to another. In the cruciform ceramic markers forming this installation, "Five Intersections Transposed," all these definitions may be inferred. These markers may be interpreted as symbols relating to Christian beliefs, or they may be viewed simply as pagan symbols. My markers have been altered by fire and transformed into an indelible part of our environment. These anthropomorphic cruciform ceramic markers signify a union of the past, the present and future. Their ephemeral connecting shadows link tangible and intangible associations and definitions. These shadows expand the metaphorical sacred space surrounding the installation, as does “Traces,” the graphite drawing composed of several cloth wrapped figures and placed directly above the central ceramic marker.