Category: Fertility
I Want a Baby
The Wells of the Virgins
The mysteries of Eleusis, is the theme I have been working on since 1992. It is about a long research I have been doing on forgotten rites and their symbolism. An endeavor based on the writings of ancients and also of contemporaries on Greek art. The fertility of the earth-womb and children’s tomb symbolized by the well, which encloses the water of life, the water that purifies, but also fecunds, is inseparable from the earth. The archetypal image of the mother/daughter, Demeter and Persephone as identical characters. As well as Persephone’s ravishment by Hades, refers to the sexual act and to marriage. Finally, its descent and raising represent death and resurrection. Always assumed, the unknown rites have to be imagined…
Demon Seed
Fecundity
The Last Child
My work is a continuous relation with movement and time. The spiral is a symbol of life and fertility: the permanence of being under its mobility.
The Women’s World
Mother Earth
Deep within her there is life.
She is encircled by the web of life.
It is no mistake that earth is a “she”
for all that grows does so because of her.
We are the children of this mother.
We are all connected to the earth and one another
through this mystical experience we call life.
Song Heartfelt
Tajima Box Project. An artist and an extraordinary woman collaborate to create a box.
Nita Song, PRESIDENT/COO OF IW GROUP, ASIAN AMERICAN ADVERTISING AGENCY and Ann Enkoji, ARTIST
The starting point of this sculpture began when I asked Nita about pivotal moments in her life and she began to share the stories that created the themes for the box:
— moving with her family to the US to live in Alabama with her aunt
— pinching a young playmate until he broke her nose with a brick
— taking that injury and wearing it as an emblem of her character
— delivering her first child, weighing in at 10 pounds
— her two children’s artwork
— deepening her family and community relationships, especially with her mother
— and her love of the soil
Clay became the natural connection between my art and Nita’s life when she said: “… soil represents who I am. Soil is fertile, nutrient rich and stimulates growth.”
Biological Baby Buggy
With my work I explore the theme of a woman’s fertility. Fertility is a complex issue and fertility is not always a G-d given right. Age and circumstances can exert enormous pressure on women to define themselves, to reach important decisions at what could be an inopportune time.
To embrace motherhood or to reject motherhood, or to gain motherhood through extreme and unusual means: are all fraught with their own assumptions and characterizations, either internally innate or imposed by external forces.
The tendency to define a woman by her ability to bear children is limiting and demeaning. A woman must be defined by her ability to live a positive and meaningful life.
My quest is to honor all women who engage in creation whatever form it might take and encourage women to feel comfort and acceptance on many paths.
Voice Box
Voice Box is a reminder of the fertile, nurturing potential of women’s words and the pain that women endure in trying to speak those messages. It contains powdered milk and an egg licked by tongues of flame and so marked with soot.
materials: wood, powdered milk, soot, paint, paper.
Slick Chick – A Balancing Act
Age takes slick and chick
But eggs so perfect go on
And on
To feed the fragile Universe
And return and recharge and provide
Time and time anew
The best nests everywhere.
Beyond borders
Or difference we nurture
And yet strut our stuff.
No dumb clucks- we chicks!
You know…we have something worth crowing about…
Love Death
Loves Me – Loves Me Not
To be loved by the person one loves is everyone’s dream. It is a simple and obvious feeling, yet often pregnant with anxiety. Am I really loved by the one I love? To answer this question many people – or at least young girls – have picked daisies in the summer and plucked the petals to get an intimation of fate’s understanding of the other’s feelings.
That love is not a simple matter is, perhaps, one of our earliest lessons. We must hope that the daisy petals have not been disruptive of health or future. But in former times it was common to try to influence one’s love-life with various herbs. In his anthology Om Folkmedicinens Lakeorter. (Medicinal Herbs in Popular Medicine- 1981), Matts Bergmark has listed plants that are aphrodisiacs, as well as otherwise beneficial. The Valerian root has, for many centuries, been connected with many properties. Its French name is guerit tout, cure all, and in Egyptian mythology it was connected with the cat family and the subject of special worship. In Norse mythology Valerian was connected with Freja. It was an ingredient in aphrodisiacs and, with Mistletoe, was considered to further fertility.
But if fertility has been sought, the fear of giving birth to an unwanted child has been all the stronger. Juniperus Sabina, a relation of the Juniper, is filled with volatile oil in its branches and has gained its name, Sabina, from the Sabine people who lived near to Rome. A decoction of Juniperus Sabina was widely used as an abortifacient. But if the fetus died the mother frequently followed it into the realm of death. For a mere six drops of the ether sufficed for an overdose leading to a painfully slow death.
A Womb of One’s Own
Face
Soon after the birth of my first child, I became aware of a sense that on a grander scale, all children were my children. Universal.
I am now a grandmother for the first time. Mostly, I am happy. Sometimes I feel sad, maybe a bit jealous because I no longer carry the egg that becomes the baby. Look at my little grandson in utero. He is perfect, just like the one perfect living cell, the egg. What gift this is that we may, “…bring forth those who bring forth.”
Ripened Fruit
“This world is a tree to which we cling–
we, the half-ripe fruit upon it.
The immature fruit clings tight to the branch
because, not yet ripe, it’s unfit for the palace.
When fruits become ripe, sweet, and juicy,
then, biting their lips, they loosen their hold.
When the mouth has been sweetened by felicity,
the kingdom of the world loses its appeal.
To be tightly attached to the world is immaturity;
as long as you’re an embryo,
blood-sipping is your interest.”
– Mevlana Jalaluddin Rumi
A fascination with seeds, seed pods, fruit of both tree and vine accompanied my own struggle with fertility. What appeared to be fallow in my life gradually evolved into a period of regeneration and rebirth. At present, these familiar forms reflect the renewal of my work and symbolize the opaque and marvelous mystery of the human life.
This box is lovingly dedicated to Mary Interlandi: May 20, 1983 – February 10, 2003
Ovarian Matrix
Mosaic
Eggies
Candy-like ovaries
Nibbling like berries
Sucking and squeezing
Pulling and pleasing
Contradiction and friction
Shiny, sweet eggs
Long skinny legs
Steel wire and red
Cold blue-purple and dead
Hot glue opaque blue
The barrier has become the existence
The chaotic shamble has become the resistance
Confine, restrict, disengage
Biological Time Clock
Pressing Issues
In the tradition of the found object and the democratic processes of making and distributing art, I have made a mini printing press out of my cedar box. The box is now a stamp with a pad inside the box with pressing issues waiting to be revealed.
• Who controls female fertility?
• What happens to all the women and children who are refugees?
• Can women artists maintain careers into old age?
Therese Kenyon, Australia – Director, Manly Art Gallery from WOMEN BEYOND BORDERS on Vimeo.