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2 DECADES +
ARTIST'S STATEMENT
The Western mindset was created by a male-dominated society using biblical
interpretation to form and reinforce patriarchal attitudes towards, and beliefs
about, women. It is against this long and pernicious legacy that I make much of
my art - at first I bypassed the god of my childhood by imagining a much older
egalitarian and undogmatic spirituality - and later to actually re-imagine and
re-member god as woman. Although this is, in part, a spiritual quest, it is mostly
informed by feminism and my concerns about how women's relationship with
their bodies and themselves were impacted by religiously ordained misogyny.
When Elizabeth Cady Stanton conceived of The Woman's Bible in 1895, it
was a political act (Fiorenza 1994:7) based on her faith and desire that biblical
interpretation be inclusive and reflective of the importance of women's
spiritual need.
I have no such desire, the church having lost its authority for me by insisting on
the Edenic interpretation of Eve's role in the so-called Fall. Eve and all women
were cast in perpetual opposition to “god” and his plans for “man”. However,
in my work I episodically strain against the backdrop of Bible and Church and
the early sense of myself that was shaped - or misshapen - by it .
The exploration of my subject is the product of a feminist consciousness
brought about by the interaction between reading, writing, and the making
of my art. My early South African work was a personal reflection of my own
subjective experiences as a daughter of the patriarchy. At first, I portrayed
female figures as eroticised and crucified objects. Then, as if to anaesthetise
the terror of this reality, the paintings that followed were pale images of the
figure blending into the domestic environment: the housewife neatly pasted
down with the wallpaper, or hanging with the laundry to dry.
However my move to America in 1981 would eventually change my focus
from the intensely personal to a symbolist vision that questioned notions of
belief and scripture in relation to feminist spiritual thinking. Male effigies and
imaginings of a pre-patriarchal masculinity informed much of the early New
York work. I wrote poetry in my mother tongue, Afrikaans, to still the longing
for the Africa that formed me.The writing and images were incorporated in
limited edition artist's books, while the drawing and painting explored the
images and ideas around a primordial mother goddess.
In time the idea of the divine female became central to my American work,
and the focus shifted from being mostly emblematic to becoming mostly
figurative.The work is anchored with a point of view both in terms of method
and content: I work/excavate towards an image and only later allow its content
to be articulated in words.
My work was shown in South Africa until 1981 under my, then, married name,
Majak Lewis. I reclaimed my maiden name, Bredell, in New York after my
marriage ended.
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