For 2018 Ruth Ewan designed a bag inspired by the magic words of her festival collaborator Ian Saville, a Marxist magician with whom she developed a programme of magic performances taking place across venues throughout August under the title Sympathetic Magick.
The text on each side of the bag are extracts from Saville’s ‘magic words’ that he asks people to repeat during his act:
“Join in with the magic words
Mass action for a radical transformation of society,
From a society based primarily on profit,
To a society based on human need.”
Words courtesy of Ian Saville.
These words are overlaid on a rainbow image that Ewan came across when visiting the Museum of Childhood in Edinburgh. The picture was part of a toy diorama made in Britain by J C Clark about 1825 and was one of a number of effects sheets that could be inserted between the main image and the light source to create different visual effects.
Image courtesy of City of Edinburgh Council, Museum of Childhood.
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