DEATH RITUAL III: MUSPELHEIM

"Death Ritual III: Muspelheim" by Troy's Work Table. Carport chalking for Sunday 22 November 2015.

Sidewalk chalk, charcoal, chalk pastels, brick, red lava rock, hazelnut leaves, tempera paint.

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The Child has been studying mummification in school. So I decided to play along and do a bit of research. While The Child's class has primarily focused on Egyptian mummies, and artificial mummies at that, I've decided to explore both artificial and natural mummies throughout the world and from various cultures.

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I've also taken the oftentimes conflicting myths of the Norse and conflated them with some of these other cultures. The former seem well suited to play within some of these other stories and rituals.

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The Chinchorro mummies of the Atacama Desert consist of both natural and artificial mummies. The arid climate tended to preserve bodies and then the Chinchorro people eventually started to create artificial mummies and play upon what nature had started.

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The Chinchorro would coat faces of the dead in clay, in addition to creating clay masks for the mummies. I took some liberties with the coloring of the masks, especially that of Surtr, in order to capture some of the color palette I imagine filling Muspelheim.

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I realized that the branches and leaves in "Death Ritual II: Ginnungagap" were "roots" of the world tree Yggsrasil that appeared in that particular realm of the Nine Worlds in that form. That meant that there needed to be a root of Muspelheim that appeared in this chalk piece. So the fiery leaves, weighted down by red lava rock seemed appropriate.

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I also learned that tempera paint was commonly used in many cultures during mummification, so I decided that it should be part of this ritual as it was in "Death Ritual II."

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I had a lot of fun making the "chalk mat" that Surtr's mask lies upon.

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View more pictures of "Death Ritual III: Muspelheim" HERE.