The Market Square

The Market Square 

Pyrography and Embroidery on Calico, 2021 (An illustration from the graphic novel called “The Dancing Plague”)

Created and described by Gareth Brookes.

[medieval street ambience accompanied by rhythmic popping]

The scene takes place in a medieval street. A crowd of people stand around talking in the centre, dressed in medieval clothes. Most appear from their clothing to be peasants or townsfolk, and they are drawn in a burnt brown. The crowd and the wooden buildings behind them have been drawn in fine ink-like lines using a burning tool on cloth. You can almost smell the singed textile fibres.

[lute playing a medieval melody]

There are ten figures visible in the crowd, and a few more are partially visible at the back of the gathering. A woman stands on the far left, her back to us, carrying a wicker basket. She is talking to a bald, bearded man who is facing us. In the centre of the crowd, a falconer holds a bird on his outstretched hand towards a woman in a brown dress. On the far right, a one-legged beggar leans on a crutch. Surrounding the crowd are medieval buildings reinforced with wooden beams.

Towards the back of the crowd, a woman raises her arms. The lower half of her body is partially obscured by the figures at the front. 

[low, foreboding drone replaces lute and popping]

She seems to be being lifted up. Holding her arms and one leg, and floating above the crowd are four huge, brightly coloured demons pulling the woman upwards. They are depicted using embroidered running stitch in four different colours. 

The red demon to the left is yanking the woman’s leg upwards. It has wings, a claw-like foot like a chicken, a plumed tail, and a birdlike crest on its head, which is thrown backwards as if it is exerting a great effort in tugging at the woman’s leg. Behind it is a blue demon, the largest of the four, with its gigantic wings are spread across the entire image. This demon looks like a dragon but has a beak, horns and floppy ears like a dog. There is a human face on the demon’s torso, and its snakelike body is coiled around the other demons. Behind and to the right of this demon is a third demon, embroidered in aqua green stitching. This demon also has wings and is smiling maniacally as it pulls the arm of the woman upwards. Finally, there is a yellow demon with a long sausage-like body coiled behind the green demon. Its doglike legs and tail are kicking outwards toward the right of the image, just above the one-legged beggar. Its horned head is close to the woman’s head and it is sticking out its pointy tongue as it looks at her.

The dull brown colour and lack of movement of the crowd is in stark contrast to the colourful action and movement of the demons that dominate the image above them.

The crowd standing around on the cobbled street seem unaware of the huge demons above them and are talking amongst themselves casually. The woman at the centre of the image, who is being grabbed and pulled upwards by the demons, is wide-eyed and open-mouthed. She looks terrified.

[drone and street ambience fade out]