“Beth Ames
Swartz, worked on A Moving Point of Balance from 1983-1985.
This contemplative environment, was first exhibited in
1985, at the Nickle Arts Museum, in Calgary, Alberta and
appeared in nine U.S. museum venues over the next five
years. From 1998-2007 the exhibition was on loan to The
Arizona Cancer Center, Tucson. Concepts related to
spirituality, shamanism, and healing are woven together to
create this complex installation, consisting of seven,
seven by seven foot paintings, light projections, music,
and a medicine wheel. The paintings depict the
artist’s conception of the seven chakras, which are
points located along the spine through which universal
energy flows into the body. Each multi-layered canvas
fulfills a specific function and purpose. The viewer is
first given a brochure with instructions on how to walk
through the installation and interact with the paintings.
Each viewer then enters a darkened room, and steps
sequentially into each of seven light baths( red, orange,
yellow, blue, indigo and violet) viewing each painting
sequentially, hearing music specifically composed for the
installation and finally walks through a “balancing
room” consisting of muti-colored light projections,
before exiting the exhibition.
To gauge the impact of the work, viewers reactions were
solicited from the first three venues to which the
installation traveled. Over 90% of the 1,468 respondents
felt ”relaxed, uplifted and spiritually moved”.
The results of this research study was presented in New
York in 1991, at the First International Medical Arts
Conference.”
"A
Moving Point of Balance" is a one-person installation that
is both environmental and participatory in nature. This
unique and provocative exhibition by Arizona artist Beth
Ames Swartz chronicles her experiences with the rituals of
Native American and East Indian cultures. The exhibition is
focused on seven large paintings, each presenting an East
Indian chakra (places in the body that govern
emotional,intellectual and spiritual equilibrium). The
viewer follows a "journey" from painting to painting. At
each station, participants stand within a colored light
bath in a darkened room, listening to contemplative music.
Included in the exhibition is a Navajo medicine wheel by
the Native American healer David Paladin."