HOPI KACHINA FIGURE

George Terasaki, New York, acquired in the 1970s

Alexandra Pascassio and George Terasaki, Kachina: George Terasaki Collection, Paris, 2008, n.p., cat. no. 30

The Hemis kachina represents an example of a "borrowed kachina", a kachina spirit adopted from other Pueblos by the Hopis because they are deemed to be particularly effective in bringing rain or other beneficial occurrences. The Hemis kachina is responsible for bringing rain to deliver a mature corn crop to the Hopi people. Indeed, the apparently phallic symbols on the present example are best read as dark rain falling from the clouds. Its two-dimensional composition belongs to a class of kachinas referred to as "cradle kachinas", as they were given to very young children.