WHAT IS ISLE DE BACCHANAL?
Roughly translates to Island of : great times, rowdiness, and scandalous behavior. Although it does not follow the scandalousness of its name it’s meant to be a nod of being unconventional, fun, and a overall good time.
Isle De Bacchanal is an oracle-style deck of roughly 22 cards, created as a passion project to represent my culture. Each card reflects different islands' folklore, ranging from spirits of malevolence to benevolence.
Personal Story
My name is Rayne Sandy, and I am a second-semester senior at Farmingdale State College. I grew up in New York and Tobago, which influenced my worldview. As much as I loved and interacted with my culture, I felt like an outsider looking in. Despite that, I have a lot of memories related to the costumes, music, art, folklore, stories, and lessons that the Islands instilled in me as a kid. This led to creating this passion project born of both tragedy and an urge to connect the old and new.
This project is a representation of growing up in Trinidad and Tobago. For the first few years of my life I grew up amongst the ocean, the breeze, amazing food, and the entrancing music. I wanted to represent growing up in the West Indies with all of our lessons and tales.
This is my way of connecting to my family heritage (my grandparents and aunts, expressing old stories from various islands in the Caribbean) while honoring my grandparents and my aunt, who passed within the last few years during and after quarantine.
La Llorona, jumbies, spirits, and more. The ultimate goal is to create a deck that incorporates the idea of tarot and is a powerful representation of the people depicted. The deck's purpose is not to solve a specific problem but to foster unity and enhance the existing representation. What truly makes Isle de Bacchanal unique is its deep-rooted connection to the Caribbean/West Indies folklore, which does not exist in any other tarot deck.
Isle de Bacchanal incorporates the base concept of celebrating culture, allowing for connectivity from three different standpoints. The deck is the ultimate connector for Caribbean natives, tarot card users, and folklore enthusiasts of all backgrounds.
Out of 31 people surveyed, 64% said that it was important to learn about their cultures
Out of 31 people surveyed, 38.7% said they held an interest in learning about others cultures.
This is a showcasing of the outfits and dances related to Tobago (and many of the Caribbean Islands). There is a combination of African drumming, long flowing dresses, suits, ect.
A video in which they are retelling various stories in short form by way of small intervals of dancing and speaking.
Card Designs:
Credits:
Created with an image by Aerial Film Studio - "Aerial view of Tobago cays in St-Vincent and the Grenadines - Caribbean islands. Beautiful panoramic background view."