SEIRENES

SEIRENES/EROS/VOLUPTAS

“So they sent their ravishing voices out across the air, and the heart inside me throbbed to listen longer”

Homer. Oddysey. Kamillon. 12.192

“Their song, though irresistibly sweet, was no less sad than sweet, and lapped both body and soul in a fatal lethargy, the forerunner of death and corruption,”

Walter Copland Perry-^ Perry, "The sirens in ancient literature and art",

"Now the Sirens have a still more fatal weapon than their song, namely their silence. And though admittedly such a thing never happened, it is still conceivable that someone might possibly have escaped from their singing; but from their silence certainly never”

1917, Franz Kafka; “The Silence of the Sirens”

“lolling there in their meadow, round them heaps of corpses rotting away, rags of skin shrivelling on their bones”

^ Odyssey 12.45–6, Fagles' translation

“Nesting on a pile of human bones, the sisters sang to the sun and rain; their song had the power to calm or to stoke the winds and to inflame men's loins. This music was irresistible, luring many a sailor to their shore -- where he'd pine away without food or drink, unable to break the sirens' spell.”

Terri Windling “Sirens and other Daemon lovers”

Noble Savage Group Collection Clip...

Showcase clip from the Noble Savage Group Collection- Work by Mimi Liu, Jun Kim, Lilla Balzas, Luke Moorhead and Luisa Maria MacCormack.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XdaYXW6uuYg

Noble Savage Final Garment Luisa-Maria MacCormack- Model Juliet Maria Gaishauser

Final Major Initial Research pages;

Final Illustrations for Noble Savage Collection... Luisa Maria

These are the final illustrations for the Noble Savage collection, for Jun, Lilla, Mimi, Myself and Luke.

Noble Savage - Presentation pages...

Birds and Bones... Final Garment Photoshoot

Modelled by Juliet Gaishauser

Noble Savage...Some recent hand embroidery samples-

I am currently working on a team project with a group of Menswear students and one other surface textiles student, our project is based on sustainability and multifunctionality and our garment concept is drawn from traditional dress in North American Indian cultures- particularly the use of blankets and draped garments.

These are some of my Hand embroidery samples and their inspirations- which came from the idea of the 'external soul' in folktales- this concept is based on some extracts from a book called 'the golden bough' by Sir James George Frazer- in which he describes how;

"In the opinion of primitive man, the soul may absent itself from the body without causing death. such temporary absences of the soul are often believed to involve considerable risk, since the wandering soul is liable to a variety of mishaps at the hands of enemies and so forth. But there is another aspect to this power of disengaging the soul from the body.
The savage thinks of the soul as a concrete material thing of definite bulk, capable of being seen and handled, kept in a box or jar, and liable to be bruised, fractured, or smashed in pieces"

In folktales the world over, the soul is described as a physical entity- a thing that can be stored in secret places, within other beings and imbued with magic- i took the inspiration for my embroideries from this particular extract-

"in another Hindoo tale an ogre is asked by his daughter- Papa, where do you keep your soul?

"Sixteen miles away from this place," he said "is a tree. Round the tree are

tigers and bears and scorpions and snakes; on the top of the tree is a great

fat snake; on his head is a little cage; in the cage is a bird;

and my soul is in that bird"