The Paradox Tabernacle
The Paradox Tabernacle
artist: Robert Caldwell
(born: 1954)
built: 2012 - present
where: Viroqua, Wisconsin
status: For possible visits, contact: organiparadox@gmail.com
more web info
2026 video of The Paradox Tabernacle
Robert Caldwell was born in 1954 in an industrial town in South Carolina. He sent himself through college working as a weaver in a cotton mill, and later worked on dairy farms which led to him relocate to southwestern Wisconsin in 1989 where he has mostly lived ever since. He taught in the Waldorf school system, and since 1993 has earned his living in organic certification.
At the age of 13, in a state of deep despair, he experienced a "visitation", which gave him the gift of an expansive sense of the sacredness and value of his own existence that was hidden to him at the time. This set him on a path of spiritual inquiry that became a prime motivating force in his creative explorations.
In 2012, he transformed his creative work into Altars, as a way to relieve the anxiety generated from living in an existence he says he did not understand; an inner pilgrimage of sorts. These assemblages now number over 600 and create a three dimensional dreamscape in his home and basement underworld.
Robert says, "Each altar is in itself both a question and an answer, and while neither the question nor the answer is explicitly stated, the medicine is revealed through the process itself. These altars represent the doing of my duty to realize 'What IS', Truth, or God."
(Written by Robert Caldwell w/ Ron Byers)
