The inverted triangle shapes were inspired by the idea of combining loincloths and merkins (pubic coverings for women), which as it developed assimilated information about those cultures I have lived in and visited during thirty years of global travel with the focus being on Asia and the east. Two shows with merkins as their theme have appeared in public in America and the Caribbean and it seemed to me that with Africa having been the source for so much human traffic over time from primitive tribal and modern communities the time had come for a small exhibition of this nature.

The question of balance needed to be addressed ; slaves were men and women and so by introducing the calabash extensions another visual component was added to the display. Each exhibit has a theme and in ‘Selamat Mr Shonibare’ I have acknowledged British born Nigerian artist Yinka Shonibare OBE famous for his lampooning of class and cultural authenticity by substituting African textiles with Indonesian batik, combined with a reference to potency and status signaled by the phallocrypt or penis sheath worn in many tribal communities. Natural shapes are echoed in many designs and patterns inspired by natural flora and fauna around the world which are often geometrically simplified and have regionally specific interpretations according to their geographical location. The freedom permitted by artistic expression to cross reference seemingly at random often arriving at reassuring similarities is a potent tool in the commonality of our universal human need for structured frames of reference to articulate concepts and ideas.



According to some SE Asian mythology the origin of the human race is believed to have emanated from a gourd and these organic objects are regarded as auspicious with other cultures appropriating them as part of a dress code as phallocrypts or penis sheaths. Handmade papers from the east were used for the collaged surfaces of the calabash extensions.

The ‘Three inch golden Lily’(or Lotus foot) exhibit introduces us to the Chinese practice of foot binding, a status symbol which rendered women incapable of working in fields and resulted in impractical tiny, deformed feet considered erotic and desirable. Historical records dating from the Song Dynasty (960-1279 AD) mention foot binding although legend claims it originated in the Shang (Dynasty (1700 -1027 BC) when an empress with a clubfoot demanded that women within her court were subject to bound feet. According to author Louisa Lim the "three-inch golden lotuses" were seen as the ultimate erogenous zone, with Qing dynasty (1644 – 1911) pornographic books listing 48 different ways of playing with women’s bound feet. A more contemporary humanitarian comment exists in the inverted triangle ‘Tribute to Ai Wei Wei’. This middle-aged contemporary Chinese artist highlighted major flaws in the Chinese bureaucratic system after an earthquake in Sichuan province in May 2008 resulted in poorly constructed buildings collapsing and killing hundreds of schoolchildren in their schools.

Slavery as victim of circumstance is revealed by ‘Kratoa’ the niece of Chief Autshumato known to the Dutch in the 17th c as Harry the Strandloper. She was taken into Commander van Riebeeck’s household as a young girl serving as a translator and housekeeper and marrying a respected Dutch medical Doctor. But unable to adjust to cruel social circumstances she eventually died from alcohol addiction. Belief systems guilty of inhumane gender repression and violence are referred to in ‘Afghan Sisters’ where gauze is employed to refer physical abuse in the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan. Less obvious but equally relevant is the reference to ‘Guerilla Girls’ – a group of radical feminist artists established in New York in 1985 who employed humorous combinations of media challenging the public to reconsider issues of feminism and gender parity.

A childlike inverted triangle of orange felt bordered with white rick-rack is framed by Burmese Achiek (wave) patterned fabric as a terse comment on a repressive military regime preventing economic development in Myanmar. Yet even here satellite dishes and plasma screen TV exists in the suburbs around Yangon and Mandalay and those with sufficient funds are economically insulated from the poverty of the general population.

During my travels interesting similarities and differences emerged. Natural geological totemic shapes and indentations are frequently awarded elevated status as symbols of potency and power that are often sanctified, revered and seen as male. Women’s status is influenced by myth and taboo often surrounding female biological cycles when restrictions prevent menstruating women from entering sacred religious precincts and can even prohibit their productivity because of superstition.

A conversational piece referring to modern German avant-garde artist Josef Beuys (1921-1986) is entitled ‘Mr Beuys meets Jim Dine’ - a lighthearted quip on relationships. Believing that experience and knowledge contribute to each individual’s way of interpreting information the objects on this exhibition have through a synthesis of imagination, study, travel and experience been made using elements like animal skins, silks and other fabrics (both machine and hand woven) to create little visual reference points that are open to interpretation by the viewer but may be assisted by these notes to provide some explanation about the work. Much of it was experimental with the idea of a finished commercial product not being the priority so not all of the works are for sale but can be remade to specification if required.