Here Barbie sits in the traditional half lotus Ardha Padmasana (a position in which she was slowly and patiently trained to remain over time—no easy feat given the structural constraints of her plastic legs). She is seated on a small orange and gold brocade zafu, wearing a hand-beaded sweater, ready to begin her daily meditation practice. Her seat rests atop a gilded pewter lotus within a sanctuary assembled from an old wicker plant-holder and a cast-off miniature stained glass “window” also in the shape of a lotus. Her sanctuary is further embellished by curtains of vividly colored dupioni silk that can be drawn back to reveal her interior spiritual architecture, the blossoming of the seven chakras up the back of her spine culminating in the glittering halo of her open crown. The Sanskrit inscription over her head, the first of Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras, can be loosely translated as “NOW begins the practice of Yoga.” The completed assemblage includes two small hidden compartments in which small treasures and keepsakes can be stored.

NFS: Collection of the Artist.