“KALI’S PANTS – AKA – NICE BEAVER” – SHAMANIC SHAKTI BEAVER MERKIN – YONI ART

“KALI’S PANTS – AKA – NICE BEAVER”

Shamanic Shakti Beaver & Pike Merkin

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SAY “NO” TO FEMALE CIRCUMCISION.

“KALI’S PANTS – AKA – NICE BEAVER” – SHAMANIC SHAKTI BEAVER FUR MERKIN – VULVA ART

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“KALI’S PANTS – AKA – NICE BEAVER” – Made from recycled materials

(Completed 2009)

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“Kali’s Pants” started off as a joke!  At the time I had an opportunity to recycle a piece of an old vintage fur coat – made from real BEAVER!

I had the idea of making a furry ‘Merkin’!  Ohhh, the jokes were flowing, lol!

Even though there was humour running through my idea, it still had the usual shamanic undertones of a serious work of art and genuine attempt at self-realization/actualization.

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BEAVER SYMBOLISM

• Clearer understanding of our subconscious thoughts and dreams
• Ability to mould our thoughts more constructively to suit our needs
• Determination to follow our dreams
• Diligence to keep and reach our goals
• Balance and flexibility concerning ourselves and our expectations
• Take time for self, friends and family. The people in our lives are most precious

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My finished piece looked great and was named – “NICE BEAVER” – inspired by the classic quip from the legendary Leslie Nielsen from the movie  “The Naked Gun”.

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[Jane Spencer climbs a ladder]

Lt Frank Drebin (played by Nielsen: Nice beaver!

Jane: [producing a stuffed beaver] Thank you. I just had it stuffed.

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(click on the picture to see the clip on youtube!)

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It was during a visit to a friend’s house that the furry ‘bikini-bottom’ performance art piece “Nice Beaver” was re-named “Kali’s Pants”. 

My friend and I often swap oddities and make things from dead bits, this occasion was no different.  The addition of a predatory Pike jaw bone, a handmade red velvet vulva that I quickly whipped up and a piece of Dragons Blood incense to intensify ‘potency’ made ‘Nice Beaver’ take on greater spiritual and emotional meaning!  It became a thing of power.  It made one wince.

It was re-named after the fearful and ferocious form of the Dark Mother Goddess –  Kali.

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“Women do not only ‘give’ life, they ‘take’ it also”. 

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An obvious aspect of ‘Kali’s Pants’ – AKA – ‘Nice Beaver’ needed addressing – the fact that this vagina had TEETH!

It felt perfectly natural that this particular merkin should have them – and that I needed to take a little ‘time-out’ for some serious introspection!  lol.

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“The Vagina Dentata is an image or an attitude being reclaimed by women in the world today, that of the aggressive, powerful female who is a danger to any man who seeks to conquer or oppress. Women are reclaiming their metaphorical vagina teeth and are prepared to bite back!”

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Vaginal teeth motifs exist in myths, stories and jokes all over the world, showing up as a symbol of aggression and revenge in women.  The idea of a vagina with teeth dates as far back as Greek mythology and is rooted in the idea that the female body has hidden, dangerous secrets and that a man who has sex with a woman may risk castration.

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“KALI’S PANTS – AKA – NICE BEAVER” made her debut art performance at one of my regular festivals the same year, and the response was dramatic and dynamic!

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Since then, when the mood takes, she has empowered the occasional Women’s Gathering and Shakti Dance.

I have also decided to use her to ‘figure-head’ my protest against FEMALE CIRCUMCISION.

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She currently resides on my sunscreen in the van, lol.

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As with much of my work, I aspire to gently push the experiencer, including myself, to question preconceptions and socio-cultural taboos by creating something beautiful and compelling from something dead and/or socially repulsive.

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A LITTLE MORE ABOUT ‘VAGINA DENTATA’

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(taken from an excellent article with further links – read on…)

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‘Vagina Dentata’ is a widespread, archetypal fear to be found in mythology, symbolism and faiths worldwide. It is evocative of a subconscious belief that a woman may devour or consume her partner during sex, believed to be aroused by the mouth-symbolism of the vagina. Sigmund Freud, who coined the term, said, “Probably no male human being is spared the terrifying shock of threatened castration at the sight of the female genitals.”

Visions of a gaping, hungry vagina lined with rows of sharp teeth have been predominant throughout especially patriarchal societies, representing the fear the destructive man has of being conquered by what he seeks to oppress. 

“Metaphorically, every vagina has secret teeth, for the male exits as less than when he entered.” said Camille Paglia in “Sexual Personae”.

Risen with the belief they are superior to women, the weakness and impotence felt after the moment of ejaculation awakens unconscious fears of having been devoured. It is a belief in many cultures that the man expels his energy in ejaculation, while the woman draws it into herself, and adds it to her own energy.

  
In ancient civilisations, women do not only give life, they take it also. Dark Goddesses are the manifestation of the warm, nurturing womb, and the devouring gateway to the afterlife.  The Norse Goddess Hel ruled over Helheim, whose gateway was a vagina, or ‘yoni’ and the Christians, who adopted Hel’s name into ‘Hell’ for their afterworld, often depicted the gateway to Hell as lined with teeth, and looking very much like female genitalia. The Indus symbol for women was a comb, which was symbolic of the vagina dentata. The vagina having the same capacity to consume as the ocean – also a feminine symbol – and whose waves were said to be teeth. 

Vagina Dentatism and its prevalence in religions (readers advised to visit the below link to what Barbara Walker says about it, for a more complete overview of these) would seem to be mankind’s fear of being conquered, of being weakened and taken back to what he was as a mere foetus, germinating within the womb.

This fear continues today, now taking the form within art and pop culture. Picasso, among others, had depictions of the vagina dentata is his artworks, movies such as Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Candyman and even one episode of Batman, where Poison Ivy’s giant Venus fly trap engulfs her victims, contain vagina dentata imagery and it is a popular area of study for feminists, theologists, mythologists and historians.

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