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heather tweed |
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anubis other world tour |
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Heather Tweed has a lifelong fascination with the gods of Ancient Egypt, in particular Anubis the God of the Afterlife.
Legend tells that Anubis presided over a ceremony called the Weighing Of The Hearts in which the heart of the newly deceased was weighed against the feather of truth. If the heart weighed heavy with sin, it was thrown to a waiting monster called Ammit. This rarely happened. In her Anubis Other World Tour series of exhibitions, begun in June 1997, Anubis appears in a variety of contemporary guises and settings. These witty, haunting and captivating tableaux play on western folkore's association of the jackal and wolf with aspects of the subconscious. In The Weighing Of The Hearts installation, 1997, Anubis and his Leopardess partner appeared in domestic comfort, surveying scales reminiscent of school cookery lessons, dressed in preparation for a night out. This piece no longer forms part of the exhibition, the leopardess having been stolen from an installation in Bath in 1999. |
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The Schoolboy Anubises,
1999 (right), are the first occasion in which Anubis, shown in legend
as a unique figure, is seen in multiple form as if to suggest that
something of him exists within all of us, if only as children. The
schoolboys are produced as a multiple and have most recently been
exhibited in a group of seven (Brick Lane, London 2002).
Two Leather Jacketed Anubises, 99 and 2000 (left), lurk ominously like silent teenagers daring us to question them. The Anubis baby (Untitled, 2000) suggests an even earlier stage of our mythical creature's growth, any suggestion of its being too human being immediately challenged by its zoological confinement in a cot-like cage.
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The light coloured Anubis Angel,
1999 (top left), is the first piece to blend elements of western
religious iconography with the Anubis legend, the childlike innocence
of cherubim denied any suggestions of godhood by her almost doll-like
clothes.
Elder Anubis hints at a greying and decayed future, even for the gatekeeper of the afterlife himself. Recent additions to the collection include a dinner jacketed male (left), a small homunculus figure, and a smartly dressed leather coated woman (above right). The solo exhibition in Brick Lane, London, September 2002 included video pieces, super 8mm projections, limited edition prints, wall hangings and Anubis merchandise. Completed using methods and materials more closely associated with dolls and playthings, the artist brings to the pieces a joyousness and accessibility that belie the darker notions inherent in the Anubis legend and its representation in these odd and ironic forms. |