Betty Branch catalog (6-21-23)) - Flipbook - Page 29
FIRESONG
For my two mothers and all mothers
Now the blazing
sunset is no more
than smouldering coral on rims
of crags and cradle
a watery cove where we have entered
to experience ritual.
A wooden barge glides
to the centre of the lake.
Nine bulky figures stand on deck. Burlap
“Mothers”: Mass imperfections rocking together,
heavyspiked, roughweed pushing at the seams,
retired from exhibition, stuffed bodies linked.
The sculptor rows out and lights a torch.
The flowering weedwomen shimmer and dance.
Bacchanalian leaping upon the water,
tongues licking gold Pentecost
into pale sky.
When fires die and bagpipes cease
all that is left is the scent from the burnings
and tiny black filaments falling like rain
into the present and onto tomorrows. We move
away in awkward silence, struck by the dance of
regeneration, turning toward home
through the afghan of leaves.
Judy Light Ayyildiz, October 1986
Opposite:
Ritual Fire, 1986
Photo documentation of performance
Collection of the artist
Above right:
Icarus, 1995
Bronze
12” x 14” x 4”
Collection of the Taubman Museum of Art
Purchased with funds from the Lib Hobbie
Memorial Fund, 2004.010
Below right:
Mother, 1994
Burlap and straw
12’ x 4’ x 2’
Collection of Virginia Western Community College
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