Totems and Meditation Columns

A set of eight steel sculptures, 3 to 3.5 m tall, forms one of the striking chapters of the work of the sculptor Antonín Kašpar. “I have always been very interested in the way of life and the meaning of symbols in so-called tribal communities. The Celts, the American Indians and various African tribes share a sacred reverence for fire and the making of ritual places, where

matters important for the tribe's further life were always settled. These places were marked with striking symbols, often

in the shape of columns, called totems among the Indians. As I see it, the family today is also a tribal community. If it has a garden, it will often unwittingly choose the right spot in it where all its members can gather and sit together around a fire. In doing so it creates what is essentially a sacred place, whose importance can be underlined not only by lighting fires but also by placing a striking symbol there — a totem. The totems in this set have pronounced circles pressed into their surface, mostly seven to nine of them. These circles stand for the individual stages (the steps that have to be climbed) on a person's spiritual path, as they do in Buddhism, for example. The gaps between them are smooth and gradual, so that whoever looks at them can let their gaze slide from one circle to the next

and meditate undisturbed.”