On Fri, 31 May 1996, Jan-Erik Nilsson wrote:

> >we have a lot of trouble with ethnographical
> >objects and we're never shure if it's the soul of all these stolen god's
> >ore simply PCP and dioxin.
> >
> How about souls? I have a Chinese Tang dynasty (ca 750 AD) stone figure of a
> young girl. Technically I think it4s a fake but it4s still a good sculpture.
> This thing has such a presence that I can feel this "girl" looking a me
> across the room.
> Does someone else have this feeling about things?

     I have such feelings about *many* things in museums, especially items
that were once the personal property of great (and good) people, and
stone-age tools. My deepest reaction always comes from James Hampton's
altar assembly at the National Museum of American Art in Washington DC, a
tinfoil and found-object construction over which he labored joyfully for
many years in a back-alley garage. It affects me more powerfully than the
great European cathedrals I have visited, and makes me wish I had known
Mr. Hampton. Or rather, it makes me feel I *do* know Mr. Hampton, and wish
I were more like him.

     Hank Burchard * <[log in to unmask]> * Washington DC | USA