Lot 81: Mary-Ann Orr (South African, born 1958) Journey of the Soul

Journey of the Soul
signed 'ORR' and dated '10.02.2008' (lower right)
double-sided tweed
120 x 145.5cm (47 1/4 x 57 5/16in).

Mary-Ann Orr's 'Thread Art' is totally constructed from recycled cloth. Her work depicts the journey of the soul and its time on this planet. For the artist it represents the animate (her own soul) as an inanimate object (the tapestry) and the actual process of creating the tapestry, as the threads are drawn from one side to the other it equates to the journey of the soul and its passage to the otherworld.

The inspiration for the imagery comes from San art, while the composition of the piece is influenced by medieval altar pieces, creating an overlay of San mythology and the artist’s own Christian upbringing. Representational gatherings of cupids and angels on clouds were neither appropriate nor relative images for this South African artist, whose aim is to narrate her soul’s journey in context to her African experiences. She visited San rock painting sites and researched their cosmology, drawing inspiration from the ethnographic volumes of Lucy Lloyd and Wilhelm Bleek and the works of David Lewis-Williams.

Orr chose the concept of the duality of the piece itself as a metaphor – the front is what you can see and the back is what you cannot; a metaphor for the underworld and the spirit world. The colours used are lucid and luminous, their repetitive application hours after hours inducing an altered state of consciousness in the artist, like the San bushmen in their herbal or rhythmical trances.