|
| ||
|
|
| |
 |
| ||
va'a
Female Circumcision: Rite of Passage Or Violation of Rights? |
Seventh
Moon, Day 7 The festival has its origin in Chinese folklore dating back more than 1,500 years. The legend, features a weaver maid (with six older sisters), who led a lonely life working at her loom throughout the year. Her father, the Heavenly Emperor, felt sorry for her and allowed her to marry a cowherder from across the Milky Way. After the wedding, she neglected her weaving duties and the Emperor ordered her to return home and visit her husband only once a year - on the seventh day of the seventh moon. The celebrations centre on religious rites and feature needlework competitions. As part of the worship, young women make offerings to the night sky and the two stars that represent the cowherder and the maid. They usually present fruit and burn joss sticks and incense in the open air, chiefly on rooftops, in backyards and gardens or at Lover's Rock on Bowen Road in Wan Chai.
This is drifting; drift is something both continents and boats do. What are the connectors? Sequences of steps, simple really. Boats : : va'a, bounty : : journey, passage of rites : : society in transition : : rites of passage : : female circumcision : : menopause : : sexuality : : alternate : : gay rites. A drift, adrift in a sea of humanity - transportation vessels lead to fiction, several journeys through passages, sociology, sexuality, politics. From boats to affirmation ceremonies. It is symptomatic of a nonlinear practice that mention of boats might in this instance lead to gay issues. This is not the usual wandering but a line of flight that crosses boundaries and categories. Line of flight is a Deleuze and Guattari ism, a strangle loop in dreaming thought to da Vinci's toying and the mythology of most ancient cultures. A strange loop is a Hofstadter ism. The voice of the author is expressed in this font, Arial. In this place the author is one and many. Philosophically this is only as bad as dna. This is the website of seven sisters, here the name of an artwork which has two main parts - installation and website. The installation is made of rows of alcohol bottles filled with leis, which make a shape or form. Seven forms are drawn using the lei bottles - spiral : boat : mountain : tree : cross : dna : peace. Direct link to audience participation page.
|
|
