× art.co.za artists exhibitions training auctions blog

2 DECADES +

SACRED MIRROR


'Study for SACRED MIRROR'
1996 Gesso, graphite, and oil wash on paper, 76cm x 112cm

At the beginning of 1996 my work made a slow shift away from the emblematic toward the more specifically physical. I was reading mythology, the history of religion, and the work of feminist theological thinkers like Mary Daly, Rosemary Radford Ruether, Carol P. Christ, Judith Plaskow and Annette van Dyke.This reading combined with my interest in pagan, pre-Christian religious art opened the door to a new awareness of the lost link between the womanbody and the sacred female - goddess. I needed embodied drawings to express this so I started working directly from the model.

The theme of the Sacred Mirror emerged from the idea that deity (god/goddess) is the creation of the human heart and is shaped by the human mind.This shaping has taken a distinctly masculine form during the millennia of Western monotheism and the goddess was forgotten as soon as the god of Genesis created “man” in his image.This “event” shattered women's sacred mirror.

In these images/studies I use two opposing female nudes in traditional gestures of prayer. However, the figures, unlike their countless counterparts in Christian iconography, are nude suggesting that their gestures are symbolic rather than representational.The mirroring of this reciprocal gesture activates the ritual space between them and evokes/suggests the idea of female deity: who is the one who worships and who is the one being worshipped? In humankind's spiritual journey through the ages repetitive gestures of devotion may have created a cellular memory of a primal earth goddess that was never quite overwritten by scripture nor completely erased by dogma.

'Studies for SACRED MIRROR'
1996 Gesso, graphite, and oil wash on paper, 112cm x 76cm

'Studies for SACRED MIRROR'
1997 Gesso, graphite, and oil on paper, 127cm x 127cm

'Studies for SACRED MIRROR'
1996 Gesso, graphite, and oil wash on paper, 76cm x 112cm





Follow this artist