For the Study of Ultra Violet Healing

The present work belongs to Graves' series entitled Instruments for a New Navigation. Originally conceived during his time in Ireland during the 1950s and 60s, the series was continued by the artist into the 70s and then revisited beginning in 1998. These totemic sculptures, crafted from Tuscan marble, Venetian glass, brass, mica, bronze, iron pyrite, steel, alabaster, and other rich materials, were largely inspired by celestial bodies and Graves' studies on metaphysical unity and Asian philosophies. Many of them, including the present example, feature lens-like openings that invite viewers to look through the artwork rather than at it, encouraging introspection and embodying Graves’s quest for wholeness. Through these works, Graves appears to have manifested a type of talismanic navigational device to help guide humankind's journey through the uncharted territory of the space-race era.