LADY PHARAOH

(sold)

SIGNE EMDAL

march 2023
91 x 55 x 18 cm
Icelandic wool, Italian mohair and merino wool, Shetland wool warp
Touch & Loop tech combined
Made with a special Travel Loom
Unique piece
On show at TEFAF NYC, May 2023

/Text by Galerie Maria Wettergren

Exuberant and rich in meaning, Lady Pharaoh is a tribute to the Egyptian textile art and traditions of the sacred art of weaving. The sculpture is inspired by Egyptian textile offerings intended to protect the deceased in the afterlife, as well as by the traditional compositions of Coptic textiles, combining several weaving techniques. One of the oldest carpets in history was found in the tomb of Ramose and Hatnefer, the parents of Senenmut, steward and tutor of Queen Hatshepsut’s daughter, and Emdal considers Lady Pharaoh as a sort of reinterpretation of the window of the passage of the spirit to the “other side”, a very important rite in ancient Egypt.

The bright and imaginative colour transitions are in the words of the artist: ”an artistic transposition of a visual sensation that one may feel when passing to other dimensions“

Another important source of inspiration for this work is the Fauvism from 1905- 1908, with its strong colours, set free from narratives, as well as Henri Matisse’s Arcadian painting Luxe, Calme et Volupté. The Fauves were the first avantgarde artists to collect and study African and Oceanic art.