Tree of Life final piece

I rather foolishly forgot to take pictures of my final piece for the Tree of Life project, however I do have a few happy snaps of the work in progress.

Here's the felt piece, with thicker felt at the trunk, layers of cobweb felt, thicker felt and fabric to form the foliage and cobweb felted roots, which I divided into three distinct parts to represent the three roots of Yggdrasil.

And here's the tie-dyed background piece, with willow shibori patterned base and very (almost too) subtle larch patterned top. Unfortunately I chose too dark a blue dye for the green to show properly. I should have sewn in the larch pattern as before dyeing the blue but I didn't think of that at the time. You live and learn I suppose.

I'll post pictures of the full piece when I get it back from being marked.

Art and Design Blog

Just to let anyone who might be interested know, I now also have an Art and Design blog.

Textiles in the news

I noticed a couple of interesting textile-related news pieces recently.

First up, an old textile mill in Bradford has become the setting for a play about the people who used to work there, largely based on interviews with former employees.

Second, an extraordinary dress has been restored by the National Trust to the tune of $50,000 and 1,300 hours of hard work. The 120 year old dress, made of 1000 jewel beetle wings, was worn by Victorian actress Ellen Terry as Lady Macbeth and was famous at the time. Looking a the pictures of the restored thing, it's easy to see why. The dress will be on display in Kent.

Floral Patterns Around the House

Thinking back to the Flora and Fauna project, I was surprised by just how many flora patterns I could find. These four came from just two small rooms.

I've just been going through some snaps from my camera for the last few months. More will be uploaded soon, including a few textile pieces from Pallant House Gallery.

The Tree of Life

On to my next project; this time looking at the concept of the Tree of Life. The Tree of Life, or World Tree, is a basic concept that appears in many cultures throughout history. In Chinese mythology the tree's branches support a phoenix and a dragon and represents immortality. In the Near East, from the Bronze Age onwards, the tree was a religious symbol that was so common in art that the early Greeks copied it in their own art.

Image from Wikipedia

In Judaism and Christianity, the Tree of Life is the tree that bears the fruit that gives knowledge of good and evil in the Garden of Eden, while in the Jewish esoteric tradition of Kabalah, the "Tree of Life" is a mystic symbol that plots the path to HaShem (God)

Image from Wikipedia

In Christianity, the tree of life is also used in imagery of the crucifixion, and as with Chinese mythology it's a symbol of rebirth.

Image from "Godzdogz" blog

The Tree also appears in Mesoamerican religions, such as those of the Aztecs, Incas and Mayans, as the world tree.

Image via Wikipedia

However, one of the best known uses of "Tree of Life" imagery comes from Norse mythology where it was central to the beleifs of the peoples of Scandanavia and Germany. Yggdrasil, the Great Ash Tree, supported the heavens (Asgard) in its branches, where the gods gathered to hold court, while its routes stretched to the earth (Midgard), the underworld (Niflheim) and hell (Hel). The dragon Niohoggor coiled in its routes, an eagle roosted in its branches, and four sacred stags walked its boughs. A squirrel ran up and down its trunk relaying messages between its roots and its branches.

Images from Wikipedia

More images of representations of Yggdrasil can be found here though the text is in Spanish.

Today the Tree of Life is a popular image in art and is a term used to describe diagrams explaining evolution in science.

A painting of the Tree of Life by Klimt from 1909.

This sculpture made by Mozamican artists Kester, Hilario Nhatugueja, Fiel dos Santos and Adelino Serafim Maté was made from decommissioned weapons including AK-47s, pistols, rifles and rocket-propelled grenades. More can be found out here.

Due to its rich history and spiritual meanings, the Tree is a very popular motif for tattoos, often incorporating celtic knotwork.

Image from SPC Tattoo

Final piece - Duat

At last the Duat piece is done. I made some changes to my original plan, but I'll discuss those in a bit.

I started off by drawing the images I wanted to include in the design. The most challenging was the skeletal version of Ammut, the composite daemon who eats the heats of the unworthy. To create her I broke her down into the three animals she is made up of: a crocodile's head, a lion's shoulders and a hippopotamus' hindquarters. I then found images of the skeletons of each of these animals and created Ammut's skeleton by putting these together.

I wanted her to look threatening and disturbing, so I chose an open-mouthed crocodile skull and a twisted pose.

Once I had the images I wanted to use, I made brushes out of them in photoshop and started to work on the image. As I liked the effect of the bleach drawings and the X-ray like quality of the white on black images I had done before, I decided to apply white brushes onto a black background. I started with my central motif: Ammut standing above a heart framed by a structure comprised of snakes and papyrus fronds. I wanted to give the frame an architectural feel similar to the depictions of temples and shrines in the Book of the Dead but to have it made of organic forms.

I considered adding a reference to the Weighing of the Heart, with perhaps scales, but I decided that it would be more effective to focus on organic forms and to leave out any imagery associated with order, virtue or the divine. As such I decided against including imagery associated with any of the gods, such as jackals, baboons, the Seth animal or birds.

Once I had the central image sorted, I ensured the design was properly centred, added white guidelines and then a series of snakes at diagonals to add a diamond pattern

To test that the snake diagonals lined up, I tested the image as a pattern

The result had a nicely archaic feel. It reminds me of 18th century wallpaper designs. However it didn't quite capture the sense of threat and fear that I wanted so I added brushes based on dangerous animals common in Egyptian art, especially in images of Duat: scorpions and hippotomi. I considered adding a crocodile, as crocodile daemons are very common but decided that that might detract from the crocodile that made up Ammut's skull.

Originally I tried adding a smaller scorpion but I felt that it didn't make use of the space very well. Once the design was finished, I tested it on a large area once again.

Although the repeat itself is fairly simple, being nothing more than a block repeat, I like the geometric feel that the blocks and diamonds create. Like the first test image, the piece has an old-fashioned feel which suggests the influence that Egyptian art has had on the development on art in the Western world, being the original inspiration for ancient Greek sculpture, relief and painting which is the backbone of Western representational art. Like the original vignettes from the Book of the Dead, it is both elegant and ordered and disturbing.

In my last blog post I wrote that I planned to make a very disordered repeat to hint at the Egyptian fear of chaos, but after looking at the art and literature of the Book of the Dead once more I remembered that Duat is a fairly ordered and linear place, however disturbing. The Book of the Dead acts as a map, showing the deceased the path through Duat to the houses of the Underworld gods, and as such it shows the order there as a person can only reach their goal by following it. Duat is ruled by deities who represent order. Osiris, Anubis, Isis, and Ra all have duties there, but certain daemons are hinted to be sent to attack the deceased by Seth, god of chaos: order rules but chaos has influence. However, to hint at the fear of chaos, I ensured that there was an element of instability in my piece by making diamond shapes different sizes, which tricks the eye and adds a sense of nervousness. I made sure the diagonals continue fluidly through the piece, though, to suggest the path through Duat, with the winding spines of the snakes suggesting the complex journey past the many dangers towards the "climax": the Weighing of the Heart.

I think the white-on-black Duat design would make a good pattern for a statement wallpaper. If reduced in size and printed onto a heavy fabric it would make an interesting, subtle pattern for a skirt. It would be interesting to try printing it black-on-black onto velvet to create a subtle relief pattern, and I think the dark but glossy qualities of black velvet would suit the subject matter and heighten the unsettling feel of the subject matter.

I experimented with changing the colours but I think the white on black scheme is the strongest, adding a modern twist to a design that draws so heavily from the past.

I do quite like the effect on this last one, however,. The blue-tones against the white are suggestive of 18th century porcelain.

Repeat Pattern Concept and some photoshop doodling

Following on from the themes I've been researching and working with so far, I've settled on a concept for my final repeat which is based on the Egyptian concept of Duat, the Underworld. When a person died, they beleived that they would travel through Duat, coming up against various tests and dangers, which could be defeated with use of the spells catalogued in the "Book of Coming Forth By Day", or as we call it, "The Book of the Dead". At the climax of the journey, the dead person's heart would be weighed against the feather of Maat, which represented truth and justice. If they were judged just, they would be allowed to enter the realm of Osiris where they would live for eternity in comfort, but if the heart was rejected it would be eaten by the monster Ammut, "The Devourer" amd the dead person would be doomed.

The journey through Duat, with the Weighing of the Heart, in particular is fairly familiar thanks to the restoration of some very beautiful Book of the Dead papyri. I was lucky enough to get to see some of them in person at the British Museum's Book of the Dead exhibition this winter, and it's clear from some of the more bizarre vignettes and the gruesome annotations that Duat was a very frightening place. We tend to think of the Egyptian views on the afterlife as strange but beautiful because of the very ordered vignettes from the Book of the Dead papyri; the faces of the human figures are expressionless, almost mask-like, and the daemons tend to be shown in rest, waiting for the deceased person to come to them, so that the more distressing elements are left unseen.

I want to create a repeat pattern that highlights the frightening, disordered and gruesome elements of Egyptian afterlife beliefs, combining Egyptianising motifs with images we associate with death today, such as bones and skeletons. I plan to create a design that appears random as to Egyptians chaos was synonymous with evil and was a terrifying idea that threatened their way of existence (the villianous deity Seth was god of chaos, linked with the serpent of darkness Apep, while Maat was the goddess of justice, order and truth).

Today, I started drawing some of the images I will use for this piece, and had a quick experiment with brushes I created from them. Here's the result.

Drawings and sketches

I've been sketching a lot for this project, here are some of the more successful ones.

These last two were drawn from the top of Portsdown hill, the original views looked something like this:

Animals in Egyptian Hieroglyphs

Egyptian hieroglyphs include a vast number of ideograms depicting animals, both real and mythical, and parts of animals. Plants are depicted too, but they are often so stylised it is difficult to see what they were intended to represent.

Hierolgyphic script was only used for special occasions and expensive items, such as high quality funerary goods and manuscripts, because it was so difficult to write. Grammar was very complicated and there were hundreds of separate ideograms which could stand for one word or one syllable depending on context. Scribes had to train for years just to be able to accurately copy manuscripts. Artists also seem to have had a basic knowledge of the ideograms, as the stylised signs themselves appear frequently within vignettes depicted in tomb paintings and temples, even in jewellery (see Wilkinson: Reading Egyptian Art)

The English Egyptologist Sir Alan Gardiner created a table of signs which he divided up thematically in terms of what the ideograms depicted, which includes a number of mammals, reptiles, amphibians, birds and plants. This is useful for a number of reasons; it provides a comprehensive list of creatures that were recognisable to ancient Egyptians, but it also it provides a quick glossary to the stylised forms.

It's interesting to note that the vast majority of the creatures depicted are real animals rather than mythical beasts, with the benu bird and the Seth animal being notable exceptions (although even the benu bird is based largely on a heron).

More images of the Fauna of Egypt

All images are from Wikipedia unless otherwise stated. I know it's not the most reputable of sources but it's always a good starting point and you can't go wrong with a good picture. This time I want to look specifically at skeletons and skulls.

Hippotomus

 Lion

 Crocodile

 Egyptian Wolf/Jackal

 Horned Viper

(Image via)
Hyena

Hellenistic mosaic depicting a striped hyena.


As I mentioned in my last post, I'm thinking of working on a design featuring animals and daemons of ancient Egyptian folklore. I want to use realistic depictions of skeletons, stylised Egyptianising flora and possibly some fairly realistic studies of insects (particularly scarabs) and snakes. It's an idea I'm only just starting to properly shape, but it's developing.

Rogue Taxidermy

Rogue taxidermy is the practice of creating fake "mythical" or hybrid animals by sewing and stuffing together the remains of two separate animals. These were (and still are) often exihibited at freak shows and other sideshows. Historically these were sometimes put together to dupe gullible members of the public, especially in times where education was vague and few people travelled. Today, rogue taxidermy is an art form, a sort of macabre kitsch.

A "stuffed" griffin from the Copenhagen Zoological Museum (via Wikipedia)

Famous examples include the Fiji mermaid, a grotesque combination of a monkey and a fish;
The skavader, a fictional Swedish creature, and the jackalope, a creature from North American folklore. Such hoaxes were very common, especially in the case of medieval monsters and mythical beasts, so much so that when the Australian platypus was first discovered, people assumed it was a stuffed fake.

Image of the Fiji Mermaid from Wikipedia, see link above

The term "rogue taxidermy" was invented by the Minnesota Association of Rogue Taxidermists, a group who specialise in artificial oddities. When they first exhibited, the New York Times ran a feature on their work, including Sarina Brewer's brilliant roadkill creation, the "Goth Griffin" (below)

Here's a selection from their 2010 exhibition, with more images from the show here.

A similar idea can be seen in the delicate and strangely appealing bone and metal creations of Jessica Joslin

From Joslin's 2010 collection, Brass and Bone

There has been a lot of controversy about these pieces, however. Some taxidermists and audiences accuse the artist of not respecting the animals that are being used to create the pieces. However, since many artists, such as Sarina Brewer and Scott Bibus only use "found" animals (usually roadkill), I personally beleive there is greater respect for the animal than in conventional taxidermy, which often uses hunting trophies. Beyond that, I see a similarity with practices of indigenous peoples in North and South America and in ancient Egypt; using the remains of an animal to create pieces that are both beautiful and have deep spiritual or symbolic meaning. I strongly beleive that using otherwise "leftover" parts of animals shows is a fitting tribute to that creature.

I really enjoy this sort of work. Taxidermy has become a fairly common sight in fine art installations thanks to the work of artists like Damien Hirst and Polly Morgan, but I particularly respect the skill required to create a convincing rogue piece, as well as the dark humour of many such pieces. I'm considering adding an aspect of rogue taxidermy to my Egyptianising theme. Taxidermy and mummification, although practiced for different purposes, are fairly similar. Rogue taxidermy reminds me of the Egyptian mummies of animals such as hawks, rams and cats, which were often arranged to resemble the basic mummiform shape of a mummified person. Both practices are about preserving the dead and giving the corpse the sembulance of life.

I also like the idea of using rogue taxidermy to create mythical creatures, though the beasts typically created have Christian and Graeco-Roman subjects; it would be interesting to create a piece that references Egyptian daemons and deities, such as Ammut, but has the feel of rogue taxidermy.

More rogue taxidermy pieces
A blog featuring rogue taxidermy
An artist who creates terrifying mixed media "mermaids" using parts of fish
Another piece about the Minnesota Association of Rogue Taxidermists, with videos, slideshows and more
And another

And a video featuring two of New York's leading taxidermists talking