Playing off motifs in tribal art, Cargo Art is inspired by cargo cult beliefs that seek a way to tap into the powers and wealth of industrial society.

Keene Meltzoff, an anthropologist (PhD. Columbia University 1982), conceived and named "Cargo Art" in 1984, and began creating her own art vision of idols and masks that meld the machine world to the pre-industrial world of nature and ancestor spirits.

Moving beyond found objects and assemblage (Picasso's bicycle seat bull, Max Earnst's insects), "Cargo Art is a vision and art form I created as a fusion of ancestor spirits from traditional villages and nature with the souls from industrial society".

These spirit figures bring the power of the ancestors together with the strength of our machine world to attract wealth, happiness, and love. Focusing energies, some Cargo Art are talismans for love, fertility, and high energy.

Cargo Art makes one smile. They are good companions, besides being strong images. "Animated and humorous, they visually interface with antiques and modern designs since they, themselves, are the marriage of two worlds".

"I make Cargo Art from tools and machine parts, flotsam of the modern world that I often find on anthropological fieldtrips and in old attics, or junkyards and beachcombing. I combined these representatives of the

industrial society with bits of traditional wealth and nature from my fieldwork as an anthropologist, such as New Guinea bridewealth cowries, "cat's eyes" operculum (from the Solomons green snail), vertebrae and skulls, Congo fetishes, ancient fabric".

"Cargo Art plays off of the visual motifs of tribal art; even fooling other anthropologists into thinking they're seeing some strange new native folk creation. It resonates to political realities where Third World villagers are on a quest for industrial wealth, and Cargo Art is one believable response. It melds their ancestors to ours in the First World". Cargo Art becomes a road to relinking art, science, and spirituality in our fragmented world.