The hand becomes a wing...
I have often had dreams where I could fly. They
are fantastic dreams, soaring over the earth, turning, diving, climbing, I love
to fly. How often have I looked at birds with just such a wish, that I could
fly like them.
Literature through the ages, poets, writers, of
all races have used the symbolism of flight in many ways. Flight is an idea of
freedom. It suggests liberty, deliverance, escape. Flight can also represent
the spirit or soul of a person. The direction of flight is also important, for
example flight downward is bad, usually a hellish kind of destination, while
flying upward is good, usually a heavenly destination.
Feathers themselves again are a common symbol used
in literature throughout the world. When we were in Egypt I remember the tour
guide telling us that one of the gods would weigh the soul of a newly dead
person against a feather to determine it’s eternal destiny. Normally feathers symbolise
things such as truth, speed, lightness, ascension etc. White feathers also mean
innocence or a fresh start in a spiritual sense.
When I began to consider making a companion piece to "6.5 Weeks", I was thinking about escaping a very tragic and difficult situation
that Candace our daughter found herself in. My piece “6.5 Weeks” had to do with just this situation. But I began to understand that this was only part of the story.
That piece leaves her in a tied up situation. I needed to now somehow represent
the next phase of her life. I had always been thinking about how she could have
escaped, or how she could have been found by someone and given her freedom
again. My mind was locked in those kinds of scenarios when suddenly I realised that her death itself was the escape. It was an escape from facing this demonised man to
her heavenly destination. A place of no pain, no abuse or tears. It was tough
on us, but really in her situation it became her only live option.
That is why my working title for this piece was “mercy flight.”
That is why I used the symbol of the tied hands becoming “white” wings, the
rope (the agony and the pain) falling away, forgotten in the anticipation of
her “upward” flight to her awesome heavenly destination. She is free indeed.
“You
yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt, and how I carried you on eagles’
wings and brought you to myself.”
Exodus 19:4
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