House of the Spirits

“Lighthouses are endlessly suggestive signifiers of both human isolation and our ultimate connectedness to each other.” - Virginia Woolf.

I have a fascination with lighthouses, and I’m not alone. There is something evocative about them, the lonely sentinel keeping watch, keeping an eye on the sea and offering a guiding light to the lost or weary traveler. The lighthouse guards us well, but, who guards the lighthouse? Japanese Karakuri Creation Group artist Yoh Kakuda loves lighthouses too, and has created a few over the years. Kakuda’s new work “Lighthouse Keeper” introduces the idea of a guardian for the lighthouse itself.

Kakuda explains the origins of the piece, “I have a friend who is an artist. Once, she gave me her work. The work is a small wooden embossed carving(relief) with a wolf and a lighthouse. I love the lighthouse, and she knows it. The work is wonderful and I like that world view. And then I came to want to make the work to a Karakuri box. Of course, I made it with my friend's permission.” The sculptural box that Kakuda recreated looks exactly like the artwork by painter Mayako Hakasui in an impressive homage.

The wolf-like dog appears to me to be a spirit animal, larger than life, familiar yet strange. “A creature like dog or wolf stands by the lighthouse. A lighthouse that watches over the ship and a creature that protects the lighthouse. They have a good relationship.” Kakuda shares similar sentiments to my own about lighthouses, about how they can evoke feelings of isolation or despair as well as comfort. “What does a lighthouse mean to me? A Canadian TV drama I saw a long time ago. The lighthouse was always a place where people gathered on the drama. Even though the lighthouse stood on a lonely hill, I felt relieved when the light came on. Both good and bad things happened near the lighthouse.”

Lighthouse Keeper is a beautiful piece, with its striking interplay between metaphorical guardians. Like many Kakuda pieces, it features an automated movement that is integrated into the way in which the drawer can open. Walnut, maple, satcine, and sumac compose the wooden elements and there is a brass core shaft inside. Kakuda learned “how to adjust the force when changing rotational motion to linear motion, how to express the fluffy fur of the creature, how to express the toes, and how to express a creature's folded back legs when it is sitting,” while creating this work.

Kakuda’s pieces all tell a story, and this one seemed to make people happy, which is especially important now, as the world comes out of the fog of isolation. “I haven't found the answer yet, but it may be a kind of longing to that world view. Or maybe the lighthouse is me? The lighthouse continues to shine in the distance from the same place. It stands on a lonely hill. But there is a "lighthouse keeper" by your side. It may be that we are not all alone.”

The toast to the Lighthouse Keeper takes us back to 1939 where we meet Charles H. Baker, Jr, a small time magazine editor and publicist who married a mining heiress and spent the rest of his life traveling the world, writing about food and drink for chic publications like Esquire, Town and Country, and Gourmet. His magnum opus was a two volume compendium of recipes he collected over the years, published originally as a two volume set in 1939, called The Gentlemen’s Companion: Being an Exotic Cookery and Drinking Book. An update in 1946 was renamed The Gentlemen’s Companion: Around the World with Jigger, Beaker and Flask. His fame from the books had more to do with his flamboyant writing than the recipes, as evidenced by this passage about one of his “temperance delights”, the famous Angostura Fizz: This mild fizz is again like initial olive sampling; either it suits or it doesn’t, and subsequent trials often show sudden shifts to appreciation. It is a well-known stomachic along the humid shores of Trinidad, in British Guiana; wherever the climate is hot and humidity high, and stomachs stage sit-down strikes and view all thought of food – present or future – with entire lack of enthusiasm. Further than this, the cinchona bark elixir in the Angostura, the other herbs and valuable simples, are a definite first line defense against malaria and other amoebic fevers – especially in warding off their after effect in later months when all actual peril is past.

Bartender Allan Katz is a Queens New York native who loves reggae music and named his Las Vegas bar Jammyland after the record store and recording studio from his hometown that produced so many fond memories for him before it closed down. Katz loves that the classic Angostura Fizz uses a full ounce of Angostura bitters, perhaps the most famous cocktail bitters of all time - an aromatic spiced tonic originally invented in 1824 and historically produced in Trinidad. Like all cocktail bitters, it is non-potable, being far too bitter and astringent on its own – so of course using a whole ounce in a cocktail is a wink and a nod in the bartender’s tribe. It’s ironic that Baker includes the original fizz in his ‘temperance” section, since despite having no other base spirit, the fizz still packs a punch. Angostura bitters weigh in at 90 proof! The fizz is sweetened with grenadine, balanced with lime, and whipped to a silky smoothness with cream and egg. Katz ups the ante by substituting homemade cream of coconut in his drink, evoking the islands and named by his business and life partner Dani Crouch to capture that spirit. Cheers!

Spirit Animal by Allan Katz

1 oz Angostura bitters

1 oz grenadine

1 oz fresh cream of coconut

¾ oz fresh lime

Chilled club soda or seltzer

Shake all ingredients except soda with ice and strain into a tall glass. Top with the soda.

See more from this artist: