Project

The hard, dark Bardiglio stone of Cappella is like a messenger of ancient times

Cappella like a place that time forgot, with its abandoned quarry, cemetery and chapel, was once a vital center of marble excavations from Roman times and perhaps even earlier. A walk on the pathways around the quarry reveals breathtaking views of the sea below and abandoned marble boulders strewn like bread crumbs along the way. The hard, dark Bardiglio stone of Cappella is like a messenger of ancient times long before our species walked the face of the earth, millions of years ago. This seemingly impenetrable stone is occasionally interrupted with corrosive rifts of a warm, creamy color, that reminds us of the sea creatures that once inhabited the area thousands of years before humans did. In the hands of Yemisi Wilson, these age-old stones come to life, like Shamans, speaking to us from the past. Their wise faces emerge as the artist “dusts them off’, releasing them from the rock under her chisel. Like oracles, they expose the intertwined embrace of time that brought together fragile shells and hard rock, in a swirling dance, making them one. Are these our very ancestors coming forth from the Dark Continent, giving birth to the human race, her children scattered on the wind to the edges of the earth and back again?

– Carolyn Byrd