Reading Objects
I have always been fascinated by what objects can tell us about the people who made and used them. Before they became objects of study and collection, works of art belonged to human lives. They might be held, carried, worn, exchanged, prayed before or passed from one generation to the next. To look closely at an object is therefore to look beyond the object itself. A sculpture, vessel or fragment can lead us into another time and place: towards the beliefs, relationships, fears and values that shaped the lives around it.
It is this connection between objects and the lives that surrounded them that lies at the heart of my work.
Rose WoodwardRose Woodward is an author writing about art, belief and material culture. With a background in art and illustration, her work explores what objects and images can reveal about the ideas, beliefs and experiences of the people who made and used them. Her current project, A Journey Through Art, is a series of illustrated books exploring human experience across cultures and periods through the objects and images people have created.The first proposed volume, Ritual: A Journey Through Art, examines the objects, images and spaces through which people have marked significant moments and given form to the sacred.
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A Journey Through Art
A Journey Through Art is a long-term series of illustrated books exploring human experience through the visual arts.
Each volume begins with a theme rather than a single place or period. Ritual, belief, identity, beauty, power and death are explored across cultures and centuries, bringing together painting, sculpture, architecture and material culture to examine the different ways people have understood themselves and the world around them.
The series begins with the objects themselves: what they were made for, how they were used and encountered, and what they can reveal about the lives and ideas that surrounded them. Each belongs to a particular world of meaning while opening onto questions that reach far beyond its own time and place.
The publication of Buddhism: A Journey Through Art provided the starting point for this broader project. Ritual: A Journey Through Art, now in development, takes this approach across cultures and periods, exploring the objects, images and spaces through which people have marked significant moments, approached the sacred and given ceremony material form.
Future volumes will continue this journey, drawing on remarkable objects from museums, archaeological collections and historic sites to explore some of the ideas and experiences that have shaped human life.
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Following the Object
I often begin with the object itself: what it is made from, how it was used, where it was encountered and the lives that unfolded around it. From there, an object can open onto a much larger world of belief and memory, power and identity, ritual and exchange.
Bringing objects from across cultures and centuries into conversation reveals both unexpected connections and profound differences. Each belongs to a particular world of meaning, yet together they illuminate the many ways people have given material form to death and remembrance, transformation, authority and the sacred.
