GRANDE MADRE

Comment

Comment by Resident Curator on August 6, 2015 at 8:32am

Curator’s Comments:   

 

I enjoy the cultural appropriation of Grand Madre, and mysterious figures surrounding the ancient Venus fetish.  Highly recognizable with her exaggerated anatomy, the Venus of Willendorf has eternally represented fertility, and the birth of human art in the Paleolithic era.  Offering her a more contemporary context among mask like viewers in high chroma red-violet hues, she nonetheless remains somewhat of an enigma.  While the masks/heads aren’t obviously disapproving, there is a vaguely ominous mood to their gaze and vacuous eyes, and the sheer repetition of heads all turned inward.  At first viewing I sensed the heads were intended to be masculine entities as a counterpoint to the overt femininity of the Venus form, but on closer inspection they appear more androgynous.  The contained space becomes a stage or theater of sorts, and yet it could be interpreted that the Venus is actually supported, and visually suspended by the surrounding figures.  I viewed the other works in your portfolio to try and gain a greater grasp of the content, but many paintings share the ambiguous inclusion of ancient symbols through a mix of religious traditions.