Fertility Doll, 1970 is a meditation on identity, and cultural memory. The piece centers around a totemic figure, evoking the aesthetics of African and pre-Columbian statuary, reinterpreted through the lens of geometric abstraction. Lama channels a spiritual resonance through the fusion of archetypal symbolism and meticulous patterning, creating a visual language that speaks to both ancestral legacy and modernist formalism.

The figure, androgynous yet subtly feminine, is constructed from a matrix of interlocking rectangles in a palette of ochres, golds, browns, and blacks, suggesting an earthly materiality grounded in tradition. Surrounding it, a complex mosaic background rendered in pastel tones dissolves into a radial pattern on the figure’s right side a vortex of fragmentation that hints at cosmological energy or a metaphysical unraveling. This juxtaposition between order and entropy suggests a dialogue between the sacred and the secular, permanence and impermanence.

Lama’s work can be seen as an exploration of identity as a layered, multifaceted construct. The deliberate repetition of forms within and around the figure underscores the notion of ritual and continuity, yet the asymmetry of the background introduces an element of disruption perhaps alluding to diaspora, memory erosion, or the ever-shifting nature of personal and collective histories.