Spontaneous Beings, 02.02.2022

'Spontaneous Beings' imagines Mary Edmonia Wildfire Lewis in a future perfect on the coast of Cornwall. Pondering her life and poisons, tasting the deep medicinal secrets Yemaya brings to the surface.

Using imagination in research

Mary Edmonia Wildfire Lewis (July 1844 - September 1907) Edmonia Lewis was an American sculptor of Afro Caribbean and Native American (Mississauga Ojibwa)) descent. Her work is known for incorporating themes relating to black and indigenous peoples of the Americas into Neoclassical-style sculpture. In recent historical accounts referring to her biography, historians often mention that Wildfire “was “telling white lies” “exaggerating” her heritage and upbringing with her mother’s tribe after being orphaned at 9. She was also accused of poisoning 2 white students when attending university, she was acquitted of the charges but received a grievous racially motivated beating at the same university. Moving to Rome in 1865, she became distinctive figure in Roman society. In 1901 she moved to London, settling first at 4a Earls Court Road, then moving to 154 Blythe Road in Brook Green, a terraced four-storey townhouse near Olympia. That is the time some daydreamers see her visiting Cornwall to receive messages through the seaweed.

2. Yemaya - Yemonja, also spelled Yemoja or Yemaja, is a Yoruban deity celebrated as the giver of life and as the metaphysical mother of all Orisha (deities) within the Yoruba spiritual pantheon. All of life comes from her deep nourishing waters. Yemonja’s name is derived from the Yoruba words Yeye or Iya (“mother”), omo (“child/children”), and eja (“fish”) and thus literally means “Mother whose children are the fish”. The number 7 belongs to her, representing the seven seas; her devotees wear seven silver bracelets, the colours blue and white, pearls, silver, conch shells, and doves. Offerings for her include molasses, coconut cakes, white flowers, and watermelon. She helps in matters of self-love, fertility, emotional wounds, trauma, and healing. Like the sea she can me calm, swaying and flowing but also can be tempestuous. If you disrespect her terrain, or hurt one of her children, her anger will rise. Wielding a broad blade, she’s known to “bathe in the blood of her enemies,” or manifest in the form of a tidal wave. Eventually, the practitioners, priests, and priestesses of Santería slowly syncretized the Goddess of the Sea – Yemaya – with the image of Mother Mary. Radiantly rising from the sea, her dark skin shines under the moon.

• Publisher