Skirt Lifters
by Jane Fairhurst
by Jane Fairhurst
These soft sculptures are based on an Ancient Egyptian tomb painting of two dancers who performed at funerary ceremonies. They are cloth bodied with embroidered tattoos and real dreadlocks represent the wigs of the original dancers.
The Ancient Egyptians believed that their sun god Ra was aroused each morning by his wife, the goddess Isis, 'lifting her skirts' and the lithe young dancers in the tomb painting performed a similar function to arouse the dead person in the afterlife.
I was fascinated to discover that even after thousands of years the names of these two young dancers, Ekenu and Iti, were found preserved in an ancient tomb.
9 items of artwork shown.