Museum of Witchcraft and Magic Research

As I searched through the museum archives, I made a note of the artefacts I was most interested in.

 


Artifact 3808 - Haitan Magical Box 



This artefact is one of the most powerful ones I found. It gives me a sense of discomfort, I think due to its overall rawness and the crude nature of the materials. The texture of the wax in the human hair is really displeasing, especially the way it is used to bind the limbs of the doll giving a feeling of constriction and claustrophobia. The pins allude to voodoo practises while the animal parts are a potent reminder of death and decay, giving the item a sinister feeling of foreboding.


Artifact 3814 - Nbedele Doll


I find this item much friendlier looking and endearing. It reinforces my idea of working with fabric and I feel inspired to include other materials such as yarn and beads to make more interesting and textured pieces.


Artifact 3938 - Witch Bottle


This item is very simple and self-explanatory but it makes me wonder what it is that we find so uncanny about human hair that is no longer attached to a person.


Artifact 3953 - Crocodile


This example of taxidermy is really interesting due to the effects that time has had on the crocodile’s skin, as the colour and patterns make it look like it could be sculpture like a wood carving. 


Artifact 4043 - Ash Keys

Although this piece doesn’t offer much visually, its meaning and history is very relevant to my project. The fact that people held so much faith in a simple piece of nature to protect them from witches is really astonishing and I wonder where they got that idea from to begin with.




This figurine is basic in shape with a primal, handmade appearance. The notion that it was used for revenge to induce hernias on a victim is really odd from a modern perspective and I think this is what draws me in, the lack of understanding of how people’s brains used to work and what they really believed in.




Something about this doll is quite disconcerting and I want to explore the ‘pisky’ further in my work. The leather looks very worn out and the hand painted face is rubbing away, leaving a ghostly echo of the happy pisky it once would have been.





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