..its my statement on the state of the world, dedicated to Madeline le Bouc, the most prominent patient of early "psychoanalist" Pierre Janet.
A highly gifted medium and seer, she made spot-on predictions about the first world war, and did bear the stigmatae of Christ. The latter, just my own observation, happen as a result of being way too sensitive, way too early for your environment- and when the person identifies so heavily with a certain faith-related imago, aka picture, that she develops visible representations of it. She called herself Madeline Le bouc, the Goat, as a reference for her bearing the sins of the world as a scapegoat for others wrongdoings.
I learned about Madeline when reading the book "the holy man and the crazy woman" (Der Heilige und die Verrückte) by French psychoanalyst Catherine Clement and Indian researcher on religious topics and mysticism, Sudhir Kakar.
Madeline was already in a bad state when Janet met her, and she loved him. He studied her like an insect. Even though, for the times, she got relatively lucky, as she only had to endure the relative madness of a French insane asylum turn of the century- due to her being an "interesting case". They did not kill her..I mean, they DID. In subtler ways.
..but what really is interesting is that this book was one of those that had brains to it. I did not like her style much, but she understood mystics in one respect, and that means.. RESPECT from my part. The often attributed "megalomania" of spiritual people, when they talk about experiencing hightened state of minds, is none. She understood so much- and thus, way more than many of her Western European male contemporaries, or even predecessors.
Because..how the FUCK else are you supposed to explain a world to others, experienced in deep meditation, or in broad daylight when ure VERY sensitive and medial, that makes you be able to understand where you, we, all people come from? a world that is spiritual, where the laws of science dont apply, and states that make you feel god, in which you ARE god, because we all are by build.
Now a woman around 1900 who told her environment that she'd be the reincarnation of a saint, bore the stigmata, walked around for hours on the tip of her toes, and was "married to god", in my perception, was a deeply sensitive woman on the brink. she needed help- but not that kind of. she would have needed help from somebody equally sensitive, talented and experienced. an Indian Yogi, or some other medial-spiritual person or master. It wasn't her fault that she had been born 120-150 years too early for her times.She must have been weakened already, and was possibly "posessed" by some entities (something heavily discussed in spiritual circles, and I am not sure if I agree on the concept of "posession"- I see it rather as a connectedness with other worlds that stick with a person until it gets more than unhealthy) as well when she met him.
Anyways. Then of course the AnimaGaga (only ready to about a 20% on the picture, and will take a few months because I am TIRED), is my answer to being compared to Lady Gaga a couple of times.
Then I thought- You want decadence? you want rotten madness? I'll give ya.
The full suit will be covered in black silver-grey and dark blue Rohrschach tests, she is going to wear a triple Clown Bajazzo collar (huge collar, in white-black-shiny cream), the gloves will be pierced at the tips to reveal a set of shimmery claws, there will be two tatoos on the back, one with an Edelweiss (inspired by the flower in an old Austrian folk song, all of which are dead gory, just to say..I havent heard a "normal" one to date), and one with birds (seagulls, my totem animals). The gulls serve as a hook for me, because as in each of my outfits, this will focus on a certain topic, and the topic then becomes what I feel. I impersonate the suit, the suit doesnt impersonate me.
it is hence no fetish suit like the ones people are wearing- but it IS a fetish object in the original sense of the word- an object of (em)power(ment). In this case the representation of minds on the brink in decadent, hurtful, torn times.
The Edelweiss flower will reference a folk song that deals with a girls immature, superficial exspectations of love that eventually kill her lover. As for madness, Austria has plenty of it. And they won't learn, it seems. :) So I made this a prototypical Austrian suit..subsumming all the pain I experienced here. I realize I havent been radical enough yet, by far.
...
Text: Das schönste Blümlein auf der Welt
Das ist das Edelweiß.
Es blüht versteckt an steiler Wand
Ganz zwischen Schnee und Eis
Das Dirndl zu dem Buben sprach:
Solch´ Sträußlein hätt' ich gern
Geh, hol' mir so ein Blümelein
Mit so ein' weißen Stern.
Der Bub, der ging das Blümlein
Hol´n im selben Augenblick.
Der Abend sank, der Morgen graut,
Der Bub kehrt nicht zurück.
Verlassen liegt er ganz allein,
An steiler Felsenwand.
Das Edelweiß, so blutig rot,
Hält fest er in der Hand.
Und Bauernbuben trugen ihn
Wohl in das Tal hinab,
Und legten ihm ein Sträußelein
Von Edelweiß auf's Grab.
Und wenn des Sonntags in dem Tal
Das Abendglöckchen läut't,
Dann geht das Dirndl an sein Grab,
Hier ruht mein einz'ger Freund.
(source: http://www.volksliederarchiv.de/text1173.html)
...
(My gran sang this to me when I was a child. She exspects him to pick a flower that only grows up on the mountains most dangerous spot, and he dies trying to fulfill that wish. ) LOSS of love- I integrated it because it drove me half crazy, eventually. I used to have the strict rule not to make it personal, but this suit..is different.
...
The FACE was printed with a stencil, and its the part Nelly tells me she cannot look at since it scares her when I am wearing it. No wonder. It is a mash-up of a (world) map meets ape features meets Rohrschach, the comic hero from Watchmen.
Yet another comment on the apes we humans often are, and the bad state the world is in due to our neglicence, stupidity and hate. It will be a long time of work to go, still.
