Circe's new equipment

TL;DRAbstract

In 2009 I spent some time in the Grand Rue slum of Port-au-Prince, Haiti with Atis Resistanz, a community of artists who combine Vodou and sculpture in their artwork. Made from paraphernalia and trash, combining many elements to construct meaning, these Haitian makers seemed to me the final repository of the marvelous, the last possessors of the wand of the Greek goddess Circe. Paraphernalia appears messy, futile or secondary; while in reality it reveals essential life processes. It puts us eye to eye with vital operations. The subordinate status of paraphernalia is significant, as the word is ultimately from Medieval Latin, where paraphernalia was the bride's property apart from her dowry, the separate or personal belongings and property of a married woman that she can dispose of by her own will. This includes; personal amulets, jewellery, personal menstruation items etc. Giving objects a re-newed meaning, extending the one for which they were originally intended, 'Art from Trash', is

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