Still Fighting
Still Fighting is a series of “war belts” celebrating historical, mythical and contemporary women and the battles, real and metaphorical, they have fought/are fighting. Each belt contains an entire poem in morse code represented by knots; small and large knots create the dots and dashes while each thread is a letter of the poem. Visually, they were inspired by pre-colonial Incan quipus and paleolithic string skirts.
The war belts resemble skirts, designed to wrap around the body, and give the impression of providing protection. However, the poems contained in the belts are ominously ironic suggesting the power of those seeking to suppress and contain the wearer.
An underlying theme to these works is that of the mutability of history; how the interpretation of historical ‘facts’ reflects not only the personal biases of the individual historian but also the under and overlying ideas of the place and time in which the historian lives. One decade’s heroine can be another decade’s terrorist and vice versa.
Still Fighting grew from the first war belt I created, which was for Hippolyta, the Amazon queen of Greek mythology. I was listening to Natalie Haynes reading her book, Pandora’s Box, and she talked about Hippolyta inheriting her father’s, Ares’, war belt or “zoster” in ancient Greek. When the ancient Greek texts were translated by male scholars, the word “zoster” had been translated as ‘girdle’ when applied to Hippolyta. This engendered a series of related ruminations which resulted in Hippolyta’s War Belt containing the entire poem “Anthem For Doomed Youth” by Wilfred Owen in morse code.
I have been fascinated by Incan quipus for quite a while. Such an elegant way to account for quantities of grain and other commodities. And who is to say that they did not indeed contain poetry. Combining this with my interest in morse code as a visual set of markers (as seen in my series of morse code weavings entitled “The Chorus”), along with the aesthetics of paleolithic hand made garments, gives my war belts a rich and strong backbone on which to hang.
Boudicca’s War Belt containing the poem Ave Atque Vale (Hail and Farewell) by Catullus in both Latin and English explores the idea of subjugation as a result of warfare.
The War Belts for Florence Nightingale and Mary Seacole explore the events of the Crimean War. This diptych contains the poem “The Charge of the Light Brigade” by Tennyson. This was the first war to use the newly invented telegraph system to send reports back to Britain using morse code. The events of the war were reported in real time to the general public.
