Văz (Restored Cauls)

Pray
Brothers, to the Lord for us.
Like you’d pray for animals that have been stuffed.

(Dimitrie Stelaru – Song from the Mists)

Sea Urchin’s Văz compiles nine watercolour portraits of people who were born with a caul (part of the amniotic sac wrapped around the baby’s head). In folklore around the world the rarely occurring cauls were considered omens of good fortune. ‘Caul bearers’ were also thought to possess supernatural powers and the ability to see ‘beyond the veil’, between this world and others. However, in Romanian folklore caul bearers were also doomed to become ‘strigoi’, undead. Văz is Romanian for ‘sight’.

Văz contains portraits of nine known caul bearers, among whom Lord Byron, Napoleon Bonaparte, George Formby, Kristina Vasa and Sigmund Freud. Watercolours and design by Dutch artist Ben Schot.