Djinn and Their Environs

Nail Amphora 2024 SOLD
15”h x 28”w x 15”d

Nails, ceramics, found metal

Amphora #8 2024 SOLD
13”h x 7”w x 6”d
Ceramic, gold luster, forged iron, metal hardware

Amphora #1 2024
18”h x 8”w x 6”d
Ceramic, gold luster, forged iron, metal hardware

Amphora #2 2024
17”h x 14”w x 8”d
Ceramic, gold luster, forged iron, metal hardware

Amphora #4 2024
18”h x 5” w x 5”d
Ceramic, gold luster, forged iron, metal hardware

Amphora #3 2024
20”h x 10”w x 9”d
Ceramic, gold luster, forged iron, metal hardware

Amphora #5 2024 SOLD
14”h x 6”w x 5”d
Ceramic, gold luster, forged iron, metal hardware

Djinn & Their Environs

2024 exhibition at Nine Gallery in Portland, Oregon

November 6-30th, 2024

All work available for purchase. You may contact me for a price list.

ARTIST’S STATEMENT
I was once lost in the Sahara Desert.

I was not alone—I was with a friend and a handful of merchant men in a Land Rover. But it was unsettling to realize after so many hours, so many miles, there was no sign of life in our environment. No plant, no creature grazing, slithering, or flying in the skies. I grew up in vast landscapes, but had never been in one so devoid of life.

I began quietly, nervously, searching for any movement on the sands; I scanned the skies for a welcoming buzzard (a good luck sign in the desert). Nothing.... Imagine my relief when a fly buzzed past my face. A fly! Allah Akbar! There must be something living nearby. I settled down.

Most navigators of the desert use landmarks. When it becomes dark, all bets are off. You must travel by the North Star. Our navigator was unable to keep the Star behind his right ear, and finally at 2 am, we stopped, not wanting to waste fuel, as our barrel of petrol in the back was light. Men jumped from the Land Rover and headed into the desert to sleep. Not having the requisite robes and turban to wrap myself in against the cold, I huddled under the wheel base of a tire to protect myself from the wind, teeth chattering through the night.

During those two long days, interrupted only by obligatory prayer and the digging of Land Rover wheels from sand, I found myself with only my thoughts and my djinns. I had read stories, poems and prayers of desert djinn before—malevolent and benevolent. But it was within this setting of sand and stars they came alive to me. Ronna Neuenschwander

DJINN & THEIR ENVIRONS
These amphoric vessels give birth to ancient beings. Djinn or Genies allow us to think grandly—to consider honor, pleasure and riches, and perhaps later, to rue avarice, ignorance and false knowledge. They eternally struggle to grant us (as well as themselves) freedom from anguish.
Just as djinn shape-shift and metamorphose through time, we also are reborn, nudged through vessels. By force or by curiosity, we give birth to our ever-changing selves in this one life—one chance—we are granted.

Amphora #6 2024
17” x 5” x 5” Ceramic, gold luster, forged wrought iron, metal hardware

Amphora #7 2024 SOLD
14” x 6” x 6”
Ceramic, gold luster, forged wrought iron, metal hardware
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Tin Djinn 2024

31” x 24” x 8”
Recycled soda cans, nails, ceramic, found tin

Tire Amphora 2024

27” x 13” x 13”

Rubber, nails, cowry shells, grout, ceramic