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CODEX MAGDALENE +
Towards a new iconography and re-imaging the mythology and legends of Mary Magdalene.
(A Traveling Exhibition)
Association of Arts, Pretoria
May 6 - 25, 2016
University of Johannesburg Art Gallery
August 10 - September 7, 2016
White River Gallery
April 1 - May 3, 2017
Mary Magdalene attracted many and diverse interpretations, ecclesiastic projections and pronouncements on women, the female body, sin, repentance and redemption. I strip her figure of the layers of meaning that have been attached to her in the course of two millennia, while simultaneously replacing some layers or adding other meanings to create a quilt of many diverse and even contradictory patches. I see Mary Magdalene as a hybrid figure that belongs to both Christianity and to the deeper layers of the pagan past.
My interest in, and research into, the marginalized represented by the goddess, the witch, and the female body, are all brought to bear on my exploration and re-interpretations of this enigmatic woman. As I separate out the many layers of thought that have shrouded Mary Magdalene, I find that she cannot be pin-pointed and that her figure is ever-changing...
SHADOW I, II, III
Gesso, graphite, oil, and colored pencil on Stonehenge paper (77cm x 107.5cm)
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