Meditations on The Curse of Macha (2008)

Toronto, Canada

Nov. 22. 2018

Raz Rotem

Meditations on The Curse of Macha (2008)

In this video installation the ancient Celtic story of Macha is retold by professor Anne Dolley. Macha, a Celtic goddess, is forced by a mortal king to compete his horses while she is near the end of her pregnancy. Upon the end of the race Macha gives birth to twins. As the audience feels with her the pangs of labour, Macha curses the men of Ulster to feel such pain in their time of their greatest need - a curse that lasts for nine generations.

A story tells that when Ireland was christianized, the Celtic gods left and went to live under water.

Meditations on the Curse of Macha contemplates the legend in three vignettes. One is of a slow moving video of two dogs who are might be playing or might be fighting one another. The second is a video of a large scale image of a tea bag, slowly infusing the water. The third video is a recording of the ocean projected on crystalline wax molds of conch shells that are piled on the floor.

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