Jane Brettle

(re)Current Allegories

      Postcards from abroad bring us images of another world -flashing us back to childhood where stories of gods and goddesses, heroes and sea voyages, seductions and revenge became a special ‘after lesson’ treat. This, a pattern for deceptive dreams; warm sun, blue sea, gold cups, white cloth. Beautiful surfaces woven into a tapestry easily covered the mundanity of the week-ending classroom.

      But with so much use even this magical garment could not help but show its age. So as it frays it is woven with more recent fantasies; some, woven cleverly, surprise us when their colours run, others are so clumsily patched that we immediately recognise our latest inventions which in some future classroom may nevertheless be understood as our true aspirations.

      Where are they now those elusive goddesses? – with so many metaphors a complete picture could never quite be formed. Cleverly compelled to keep their distance until, finally cast in stone they were given concrete forms and placed outside the casino to dance, forever literal, to someone else’s tune, silent we heard of the gods with their stories of conflict and victory.

Sally Rice

Dimensions of original work: 61cms x 51cms