The Last Gift
This solo exhibition is concerned with classical female archetypes and the prevalence and persistence of mythological narratives, such as those around the ‘first women’ Eve and Pandora. Fairytales imagine possibilities of transformation: the beast loses his monstrous shape and with it his monstrous nature; the Frog turns into a Prince or, as in Angela Carter’s “The Tiger’s Bride”, beauty becomes a beast herself and luxuriates in it.
Foxy
Metamorphosis is a dynamic principle of creation, vital to natural processes of generation and evolution, growth and decay. Sometimes called transformation it is a change in the form and habits of an animal during normal development after the embryonic stage. Shape-shifting also belongs in the landscape of magic, classical mythology and early modern fairy tales. In ‘Women Who Run With Wolves’, Dr. Clarissa Pincola Estes has interpreted old tales in ways that reveal an archetypal wild woman whose qualities she says have today been dangerously tamed by a society that preaches the virtue of being "nice." Like the wolf, pushed to the brink of extinction, the innate powers of womanhood have been driven deep within, she argues, but they can yet be summoned as tools in a fight for survival.
Pandora's Box:Adam and Eve
Pandora was the first woman of classical myth, created as a beautiful work of art. The giver of gifts, at first divine then sent to Earth with a container holding every human ill, she became at once mortal and blamed for the distress and suffering of mankind after her fall from grace. I prefer the older myths where female images of divinity hold jars or containers of abundant foods and other delights, such as music, food, love and creativity. Magpies are intelligent, curious birds (they are said to recognise themselves in mirrors)! who are attracted to shiny objects, often found in their nests. They seem to be jacks of all trades - scavengers, predators and pest-destroyers, with a challenging attitude. As an artist who uses found objects and recycled materials in my work, I relate to the magpie.
The Last Gift
Fairytales imagine possibilities of transformation: the beast loses his monstrous shape and with it his monstrous nature; the Frog turns into a Prince or, as in Angela Carter’s “The Tiger’s Bride”, beauty becomes a beast herself and luxuriates in it.
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