Foundational Black American Conjure Tablet #2, 2026

30 × 12 × 8 ″ Jerusalem Gold Marble, carnelian, onyx turquoise, gold leaf, stainless steel, brass, Teak, acrylic paint and High John the Conqueror root

For Sale

Artist statement;
Foundational Black American Conjure Tablet is a diptych of carved marble disks that function as both sculptural objects and active ritual technologies. Drawing on the form of sacred tablets—historically associated with law and fixed authority—the work transforms the idea of inscription into a vessel for diasporic knowledge, spiritual practice, and ancestral memory.

Each disk operates as a “tablet,” yet its surfaces resist conventional legibility. Semi-precious stones—carnelian, onyx, and turquoise—are embedded in asymmetrical, syncopated arrangements alongside fragments of High John the Conqueror root that emerge from the marble plane. These materials do not illustrate meaning; they perform it, creating a visual and spiritual language.

Carnelian, with its vibrant red-orange, evokes vitality, protection, and life force, while onyx offers density and grounding, signaling endurance and resistance. Turquoise connects the work to Indigenous cosmologies, serving as a conduit between sky, water, and spirit, and acknowledging shared terrains of survival and material knowledge across African American and Native American histories. Together, the stones establish rhythm and pattern, echoing Black vernacular forms such as quilting and improvisational composition.

The marble itself, historically tied to monumentality, is destabilized. Its polished surface becomes a stage for ongoing conjure rather than a symbol of authority, and the embedded root animates the stone, asserting ancestral presence that cannot be fully contained.

The diptych functions as a call-and-response structure: one disk holds the visible—surface, pattern, and material logic—while the other carries the submerged—root, spirit, and fugitive knowledge. They resist closure and invite engagement beyond observation, offering an encounter with continuity, resilience, and the persistence of cultural memory.

These tablets were never meant to be read. They are meant to be worked.