Making The Map: Alice Maher and Rachel Fallon's textile epic
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Loading... - Tayer Brown
- 24 Feb 2022
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"Maps are neither mirrors of nature nor neutral transmitters of universal truths. They contain silences as well as articulations, secrets as well as knowledge, lies as well as truth."
This is a quote from The Sovereign Map by Jacob, Conly & Dahl, a book that contributed to our thoughts and processes as we worked to create The Map, a monumental textile sculpture that is now on show at Rua Red in Dublin. The Map took two and a half years to complete, is 6.5 X 4.3 metres, and comprises elements that are stitched, painted, embroidered and embellished, each and every one made by hand. It is part of a series of exhibitions and events called The Magdalene Series, curated by Maoliosa Boyle for Rua Red.
RTÉ Arena talks The Map with Alice Maher and Rachel Fallon
The other artists involved are Amanda Coogan, Jesse Jones and Grace Dyas, and we each address the historical and cultural figure of Mary Magdalene as a powerful motif for our varying explorations of language, agency, institutionalisation, shame and transformation.
Our own particular take on the theme uses mapping as a visual device to re-imagine the history and mythology of this contested figure and the impact of her legacy on women’s lives today. We hope we have articulated the ‘silences’ as well as the truths of that legacy by creating our own Mappa Mundi, complete with hundreds of constellations, oceans, islands, winds and continents, embodying new mythologies and features that challenge the archaic misogyny through which Mary Magdalene is historically presented.
Our constellations in deep blue silk are not the Great Bear and the Little Bear, but Pecatrix Major and Pecatrix Minor (the Great Sinner and The Little Sinner), our lands include Scrubland, Lawland and The Big Nothin’, our islands are Slag Island, Little Ireland and The System to name but a few. Monsters like ‘Poverty’ and ‘Injustice’ lurk in the deeps as well as hybrid creatures like 'The Mergig’, a composite of mermaid and sheela-na-gig.
Then there are whole continents where the metamorphosis holds sway and The Wind of Change blows through The Imaginal Forest, where mending and repairing take place and a new kind of mapping occurs; a map without the proscribed directions and the limiting territories, a more malleable fluid place. Read More…
