Power, the crone and fragmented bodies
Puppet found in an Airbnb property we stayed in. San Francisco 2014.
When I allow myself to slow down and be open in my practice that’s almost always when synchronicity comes into play. While away on the yoga retreat Jess, our teacher, told us stories of Indian and Greek goddesses, their power and their symbolism. Only a few weeks earlier I’d started work on a new project exploring the power of older women, representations of the crone, the hag, fragmented bodies and the image of the puppet.
The crone or hag represents divine feminine knowledge, deep and ancient wisdom, facing our pain, feeling the sharp edges of our lives, trials and tribulations, spirituality and faith. Dr Sharon Blackie’s book ‘Hagitude’ turns the ‘old lady’ legend on its head in a powerful call to action:
‘We have to say no to the cultural narrative which would render elder women invisible or write us off as irrelevant. But first we have to take responsibility for ourselves and find a narrative to offer in its place, to uncover our own unique inner hag and extend her fearlessly into the world.’
Image from 'Conversation' collaborative project with Carol Laidler. 2023.
I’m revisiting the work I created as part of my Art Foundation course back in the early 80s where I turned my body into a multi-limbed, fragmented ‘puppet’. It began as a pile of body parts that were gradually raised up to float in space. Although each part was suspended on its own string that moved freely with the aid of a rotating fan the parts were contained within the confines of a space that I had constructed. As the work was made so long ago I’m not sure of its original intention, but I’m fascinated that 40 years ago I was working with my own body in space. I can now identify this as part of a pattern interest: this work in my early 20s, the trapeze work in my late 20s, and then coming back to my body in my late 50s and feeling its relevance and importance to my practice again.
The work made on the Foundation course only exists as documentation. I wonder now how important the actual sculptural installation was or whether the emphasis was always on recording the work’s construction over time? In Kiki Smith’s work ‘Telling Tales’ the puppet figure appears, “bereft of power. She is the very embodiment of pathos, and, through her, the wounds and fractures of human existence […] become tangible.’ How does this piece, where my live body was absent, relate to the live body represented in my more recent performative work? Was the symbolism of the puppet echoing my own vulnerability as a young women trying to navigate the world?
I’m now seeing floating women’s bodies and/or women represented as puppets everywhere! As well as Kiki Smith’s work they feature strongly in Louise Bourgouis’s work, Francesca Woodman’s photographs, an Eva Hesse installation and the choreographic work of Imre van Opstal. The plan is to use my studio over the comings months as a play space, a body in space place, a fragmenting, suspending, extending, framing space. Taking multiple photos. Experimenting with format, with colour as well as black & white. With whole body and body parts. The abstract and the defined body. Clothed body and partially revealed body. As Kiki Smith says: 'I don't question my impetus...I just do it and see what happens.’
