Video by Alexander Bindrim.
The Spirit of Machu Picchu III, Philip Mangas Haozous’s elemental mass of bronze, looms over the garden, stark and still, under the leisurely wind and clouds. The unchanging sculpture stands apart from the rest of the Garden, which yields and bends to the forces of nature. The elms, oaks, pinyon and juniper all shiver in the breeze; the whole Garden appears frenetic and alive, yet there is the constant motion of the clouds to remind one of its stability and peace. Pushed by the winds, the clouds drift up and out toward the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, casting the Orchard and the Art Trail by turns in sun and dappled shade. As visitors come and go, come and go, the abstract phantoms, the unmoving spirits of Machu Picchu, stoically watch the passage of time.
Movement in the Garden is slow, but constant. Everywhere there are flowers blooming, bees buzzing, hummingbirds zipping through the empty sky. The awful stillness of the bronze shapes, in contrast to the movement that surrounds it, puts one in mind of the mountains in the background, their elemental quality, their awful stillness, but perhaps all is not as it seems. One can discern, in Philip Mangas Houzous’s monumental abstraction, the windswept cloaks of weary travelers, standing side by side, sentinels facing away from the Garden. Stillness may represent motion, as, in the Garden, motion often creates the impression of stillness. The shadows glide over the Spirit of Machu Picchu, which, like the rest of Garden, often seems still, but by no means lifeless.
