Today I was looking at artists who make their own GIFs and I discovered someone who has made GIFs that are PERFECT for my current project, Goddesses!
This artist is Nina Paley from Illinois.
She has made 24 ‘Dancing Goddesses’ and she has kindly made them free to share. These paleolithic Goddesses date back to 25,000 BC, or even sooner than that. They are the earliest representations of the Goddess in Art, and these simple figurines have been found all around the world. Opinions differ about their purpose and meaning. However, it is generally accepted that these figurines represented the hope for survival and good health into middle age at a time when survival was tough. This summer, I was lucky to see one of these figurines in the British Museum. Her official name is ‘The Burney Relief’ but the British Museum literature call her ‘Queen of the Night.’ This summer the museum was encouraging people to go and see her. They were using her as the ‘poster girl’ for a LGBTQ trail in the museum. She is an ancient Mesopotamian Goddess, identity uncertain, perhaps Inanna or Ishtar?
Nina has her own blog and has set up her own social media platform too (neenster.com). She describes herself as an animator, director, artist and scapegoat. She makes films and art about Goddesses, Patriarchy and Religion. She is very interesting to me, I like the way she is bringing an awareness of these ancient Goddesses to the public in a modern, accessible way.
The last Goddess figure here is Venus of Willendorf, until recently she was the oldest paleolithic figurine, dating around 30,000 BC!
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