Vega Prism

a sculptural mural or better called, a sonic trellis, capturing the prismatic journey of cacao through spirit and substance built for the Vega Community in San Pedro Sula, Honduras.

The spectrum that makes up the mural is taken from the incredible colors that grow naturally in the cacao fruit and also the transformative experience that comes from the ceremonial use of raw cacao, the unprocessed version of cocoa.

The latter also invokes a spectrum but one born from your heart…
…oh sweet, sweet medicine ceremony.

The work wraps the building, showing the cycle of a ray of light from pure white, represented by a silver line on the back of the building. From the birth of this white light it hits the prism and expands, creating color, feeling and emotion, becoming wild and then retracting back into clear light again and repeating infinitely. During a cacao ceremony the heart opens and expands, in life contracting and releasing, receiving light and refracting its color into our lives.

Depending on the time of day, the shadows of the prism will move and shift relative to the position of the sun and moon. This will create a multiplicity of geometry projected onto and dividing the spectrum behind it.

As with much of Southard’s work, you can play it. The lines will be tensioned and when strummed or hit with a mallet, they will produce tones and vibrations that will vibrate throughout the prism and echo inside the cacao chamber.

A vine Tradescantia Zebrina which grows a beautiful brilliant purple with an iridescent rainbow shimmer, will be planted below the prism. Over time the vine will grow up into the linework melding into the prism and bringing new life to the spectrum as nature allows.

This piece was build with and for the Vega Community.
The mural was painted as part of a community event which included workshops and welding lessons given by the artist herself.