The Ninth Wave

[IEDSRI@aol.com]

Ian writes:

 > Also the ninth wave is a conceptual piece, loosely based on the
Shakespeare
 > play HAMLET,  it tells the story of Ophelia, Hamlet's wife, and her
strugle in
 > the water on an emotional as well as physical level.  Also the picture for
 > ninth wave is based upon a famous painting of Ophelia, but I don't know
who
 > painted it (I'll find out).

The painting you're probably referring to is by the Pre-Raphaelite painter
John Everett Millais (1829-1896).  That picture was the basis for a much more
recent painting (artist still unidentified, as far as IED is aware) which
Kate has called "The Hogsmill Ophelia".  The latter depicts not the
Shakespeare character 
but a child's doll drifting on its back, and not in a river but in a dirty
urban gutter.  Kate said once in an interview that she had spent more money
than she could 
reasonably afford to buy the picture at a time when she had not yet become a
pop star.

As for Ian's suggestion about the meaning of The Ninth Wave: certainly the
theory is worth investigating.  But it has never been confirmed by Kate,
to IED's knowledge; and such an interpretation of the story would need
more than just the likeness of two female figures floating in the water to
recommend itself for adoption into the canon of Kate Bushological doKTrine.
 Kate has referred to this theme in other contexts before (note, for example,
the video for "The Kick Inside", from De Efteling film, in which she evokes
the image of the dying Elaine/Lady of Shalott character of
Arthurian/Tennysonian yore); their kinship with Ophelia is likewise
interesting though tangential.  For anyone interested in learning more about
the whorl of related subjects associated with the drowning/floating figure of
Ophelia/Elaine/Shalott, IED recommends the catalogue of a Brown Univ.
exhibition entitled Ladies of Shalott:  A Victorian Masterpiece and Its
Contexts, Bell Gallery, List Art Gallery, Brown University, Providence, Rhode
Island, 23 February - 23 March, 1985.

-- Andrew Marvick (IED)
     S               R            I