:: 2009 :: 120cm x 150cm :: Markers on Cartridge Paper ::
There is, in the evidence of Palaeolithic art, a sense that the archetype of the Bird Maiden was a powerful force in their cognition and visionary world. This is especially true of the rupestric, ;portable and cave artforms in Europe - images of women transforming into birds are occasionally seen, but what is interesting is that they do not transform in the way that a modern might expect: the neck lengthening and wings sprouting from the back. Instead, the female buttocks enlarge to become the body of the bird and the breasts become the bill of what almost inevitably becomes a waterfowl creature. Here, then, we see that in its original conception, the Bird Maiden drew a parallel between the fertility evident in a plump woman and the nutritional value of duck and goose meat. The later mythform - in which waterbirds were women in disguise, that their clothes could be stolen while they were bathing in order to compel them to marry one and the Bird Maiden's subsequent recovery of her clothes and return to the wilds - may be a deep and ancient memory passed down through many ancestral lineages of the original Palaeolithic contract that existed between hunter and prey: that one should dance and hold rituals to ensure the spirits of the animals returned home to be reborn...
