Codex Taawa

Codex Taawa is a series of illustrations inspired by ancient imagery that explores the cosmos of the Hopi people. Each piece highlights a part of the Hopi tradition, stories, or knowledge. The original artworks reproduced here were black and copper ink on handmade Nepalese Lhakpa paper and were inspired by the Codices of Mesoamericans. For the Hopi, the night sky is an astronomical calendar with all of its elements used to set ceremonies, rituals, seasons, events, and measures of time. The Hopi people have observed and measured the movements in the sky to create a complex guide to assist them with existing in this world, which we know as Tuuwaqatsi—the Fourth World.