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BOXES beyond borders

Tag: Magic

New Beginnings

This is not a title of hope but one of irony. We all know that the lady who gets cut in half by the magician appears moments later gloriously grinning in one piece. The sword was real, the box solid, yet we are time and again puzzled by the discrepancy between what we see and what we know.

I have tried with this piece to convey that what we see and what we know is both illusion.

Although the Barbie-like woman, as a trickster, cheerfully saws herself in half, an extra pair of arms, pink and girlish appear like a last minute doubt to the saw. The last laugh and the first tear are closely connected.

 

Keep It Burning

matches played with in our youth
we were going to set the world on fire
maybe still
maybe again
keep it burning.

lighted candles, take a breath
don’t blow them out
inner glow, light, fire, magic
keep it burning.

grow with the flame; feel its warmth
light the passion
dance with the fire
keep it burning
keep it burning!

Medium: wood, metal

Celebration

My box is a celebration of the joy of life, magic and imagination. I used the red part of the cardboard and some of the words found on the carton the words joy and oz., referring to the Wizard of Oz, and Coke. I cut the cardboard in the manner of Matisse with shapes of women dancing.

I teach eight art classes at four different colleges, sixty hours a week including driving time. Needless to say, I have little time to stop for a meal. So when my blood sugar starts to drop, I have a Coke. There is nothing like it–the two major food groups of sugar and caffeine. Coca Cola gives me a lift and makes me feel good.

 

A Confirmation and Discovery of Witchcraft

My recent work is focused on issues of identity, sexuality and language. I am also interested in women’s history and in women’s roles throughout different cultures.

To address these issues, I explore a variety of media, whatever I feel most appropriate to convey a specific feeling or experience. Confirmation And Discovery Of Witchcraft is an homage to witches and their wisdom and to their power to combine magic, mystery and wisdom.

The box is smoked; the top of the lid shows a young witch casting a love spell. Inside the box are burned matches, inscribed with the names of real women who were burned because of witchcraft accusations. In the mirror is a scroll, in the shape of an uterus where oral language reads: ‘ar yu squerd of mai tiars an mai blod?

Weasel

For centuries, women in Bosnia have been telling fortunes by looking at the bottom of their cup from which they drank coffee.  This is a sort of white magic.  They turn the cup upside down and then different shapes from out of the coffee  grounds left in the bottom of the cup. Each ‘figure’ represents a symbol; dog-fidelity, horse-strength, rabbit-speed…

The weasel has a special place in the history of Bosnia.  It represents the protector of the Bosnian rulers.

The weasel, which is a very blood-thirsty animal, amazes us because of the gentleness of the mother.

I started thinking about this after I had seen this ‘figure’ in my cup.

Magic Box

Covered with computer motherboards, connecting wires and glittering holographic stickers, harbors a rabbit inside, the oldest trick in the book. The rabbit represents the ambiguous nature of technology, simultaneously creating fantastic and magical results, while conversely negating magic and myth through infinite research and explanation of detail.

The march of technology is rampant, and it would be foolish not to become involved. Considering its widespread implications for the future, it offers a Pandora’s Box hope to potentially help the world through science, medicine, information, etc.

Changes will come just as they always have, only with lightning speed. Time for contemplation is scarce, but it is nevertheless necessary, for we don’t want to find in the end that the magic tricks which technology promises are simply the same illusions which have clouded our visions in the past.