Category Archives: Bella Basura

Counter cultural author

Kali

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The Wall of Girls
4. Kali

4. Kali

Visions of Kali

Kali Mati Murti Puja
Sacred Hindu image
Lurid with significance
Incomprehensible jumble
Of surreal symbols shuffles
To my Western eyes
Flitting randomly

Kali four blue arms
Third eye & bindi
Long poking tongue
Beads & necklaces strung
From the faces of dead men
Skirts of their limbs.
All her decapitated lovers.

Kali chthonic radiance.
The clammy ascetic air
Of the grave
Breathed out at sunrise.
At her feet flowers feed
On spilled blood & flesh
Flowing & clotting, both.

Sharp trident pierces the sky.
Glowing sunrise morning aura
And against the dark of
Her shimmering black hair,
The reborn and growing
Crescent moon is
Tucked behind her ear.

Kali Chandra crescent moon
Her foot hard down
On Shiva’s naked chest.
He be-cobra-ed ecstatic
Crescent moon waning
And Shri Kali moon waxing
Is premenstrual I think.

Jean Dark
2010

Pele

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The Wall of Girls
3.Pele

3.Amanda Hall

Image by Cambridge Book Illustrator – Amanda Hall

This image has delighted and fascinated me for many years since I first bought it printed up as a greetings card. I have come  to imagine the image is of the Hawaiian goddess of volcanoes – Pele. Pele is also a goddess of love, and as the somewhat Freudian cigar and phallic cactus suggest the physical nature of that love. Perhaps I am wrong, there is nothing on the card to say who is the figure in the illustration, but I like to think it’s of hot old Pele, basking under a pure blue sky, her feet in a bowl of water to cool her down. I love this picture – I’d like to be this version of Pele, with her boldly painted face and cute kiss curled hair giving her a heady, alluring appeal that I can’t take my eyes from…read more…

Kathy Acker

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The Wall of Girls
2. Kathy Acker

2. Kathy Acker

Memorial 1998
Kathy Acker, who has often been described as post-punk post-feminist and post-industrial, in fact  first appeared in print as part of the burgeoning New York literary underground of the mid 70s. She remained on the margins of the literary establishment, only being published in small presses until the mid 80s, thus earning herself the epithet of literary terrorist. 1984 saw her first British publication, her shit-kicking hell-hole of a novel –Blood and Guts in High School…read more…

Cat Anna

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The Wall of Girls
1. Cat Anna

1.Black Annis

Also called Black Annis
Image by Jenny Clarke
taken from the cover of
Leicestershire Legends retold by Black Annis
Bob Trubshaw ISBN 978 1872 883 779)

Deep in the Dane Hills area of Leicester there is said to be a dark dank cave inhabited by a terrifying woman-creature known as Cat Anna. Her skin is blue, her hair is matted unkempt fur, her fingernails are blood-blacken claws, her tongue long long and sandpaper rough, she is naked apart from a girdle made of babies-skulls…read more...

The Wall of Girls

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Goddesses, Heroines and Role Models

Overview

Bella Basura’s “The Wall of Girls” is an evolving site-specific installation of prints, photographs & postcards that has been following me around and building up volume for many years. Acquiring new images and losing others each and every time I move house.

In the past three years “The Wall of Girls” has been dismantled and re-assembled five times. As if my concept of womanhood is in flux.

My most recent move happened the weekend before last, and the girls were down, transported and back on the wall overlooking my writing desk within two days. I need them there. They are my barometer of myself.

Have no doubt , they will be edited, moved around and settled in over the next few months, just as I will become solidified, consolidated and celebratory. Thankful for the stillness.

I offer this projected sequence of blogs to be a snapshot-memoria to “The Wall of Girls 2013 – Goddesses, Heroines and Role Models”.

List of Images

An Important Ritual Item of Unascertainable Use

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An Important Ritual Item of Unascertainable Use
by Bella Basura

The Vimana free-energy lighting sources faded up in the cavernous main lecture hall of St. Eve Jobs-the-Martyr College Cambridge long before the tumultuous standing ovation had faded down and the striking figure of Professor Gordon Tripp swished in long strides to the edge of the stage. A smattering of august and adoring dons, masters and heads-of-state jostled among the eager young students clamouring by the exit as the Prof strode past with determined dismissiveness. “Professor Tripp! Professor Tripp!” a voice rang out within his head, alerting him to a telepathic message. Prof Tripp turned to face the attractive young post-grad who had recently joined his tutorial group. “Ah! Bella” he vocalised “Did you catch my lecture?” “Certainly did, Sir” she replied with deference “I wanted to ask you about some of your secondary sources”  “It’s all published in last quarter’s Archaeological e-archive report, the spring 2036 issue” Then “Pop over to my office after morning recess tomorrow and I’ll go over it with you” he added telepathically as he turned decisively and swept off in the direction of the Vimana free-energy teleportation module…more…

Porn for Book Nerds

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Last week I held two original 1891 Kelmscott Press books in my hand, they were vellum bound with gold blocking, a yapp binding with faded blue (I should imagine they once were) tie-ups. Uncut hand-made deckle-edged paper, with the Kelmscott Press colophon printed in a font designed by William Morris. I was sparkly eyed all evening. Later I checked them out on the internet, only to discover they were selling for £6000 on Amazon….more…

Three Collages

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It is a well-known fact that giving up a destructive intoxicating habit –be it drink, cigarettes, or drugs – inevitably leads to a resurfacing on old hurts that were being concealed by the compelling dynamic of the habit. A flight away from addiction brings you face to face with the demons you were hiding from. Call it Karma, Call it re-balancing, call it the Escapism theory of addiction.

Whatever, facing demons is always the first step, and as surely as sunrise follows sunset, resettling always follows upheaval. The recurring cycles of nature being a core belief of my personal take on paganism.

So, to those who know me personally (and probably by a different name) it will come as no surprise that I now consider myself to be smoothly passing through phase of contented consolidation. The upheavals  of the past three or so years – the systematic loss of my livelihood, my marriage, my home – have ceased to hamstring me with pain and distrust. I now regret nothing. I don’t cry anymore; I laugh and get on with enjoying my lovely new life.

One of the real advantages of the destruction of my recent past is the rediscovery of the beauty of my distant past. Clearing out boxes from the loft and sifting through their contents recently I came across a pile of old old portfolios and a clutch of long-forgotten art pieces. Collages dating from 1994-95 and detournments from “Celestial Medicine” magazine dating from even earlier in the 1990s.

So, with joyous renewed vigour I’ve now reorganised my Gallery, added a new gallery page and posted these newly rediscovered artefacts on my blog-site. Here.

View, browse, marvel and enjoy.
I know I am.