Exhibition Statement Nov 2024

Penelope, was it worth the wait?

Woman must put herself into the text – as into the world and into history – by her own movement.

-        Helene Cixous, ‘The Laugh of the Medusa’ 1976

 In this current body of work, my focus stays with the narrative of Homer’s Penelope as she weaves and then unravels the shroud she is working on to fend off unwanted suitors; ‘So by day she’d weave at her great and growing web – by night, by the light of torches set beside her, she would unravel all she’d done.’ (Homer, The Odyssey, 2.98-10). It is in her process of making and unmaking of art that my interest lies, with the layers of addition and subtraction and the feminist act revealed in that process.

 Tapestry and weaving remain as leitmotifs, as does the idea of unpicking an unwanted pattern that life has knitted, a reference from Janet Frame’s novel, Owls Do Cry. The grid contained within the open weave of unprimed canvas, or Mull fabric and the unravelling a series of lines, drips, and threads to form tangles and tassels that hang loose.

 The theory of écriture féminine, coined by feminist writer Hélène Cixous, references the fact that women have been absent from art history writing, along with other historical discourse, and need to write themselves back in. Artist Ghada Amer, influenced by this theory, moves her focus from painting to embroidery, developing her own ‘painterly’ language, the feminine line, in the form of thread. I explore this idea of incorporating the feminine line onto canvas, stitching the lyrics from a song by Florence + the Machine[1]. The line echoes the (unconfirmed) thoughts of Penelope as she unravels her shroud at night: “I am no mother, I am no bride, I am King”.

‘Shroud 1’  420 x 600mm – ink, pastel, acrylic and Mull fabric on canvas

‘Shroud 2’  420 x 600mm – ink, pastel, acrylic and Mull fabric on canvas

‘Penelope’s Song’  1350 x 1300mm – ink, pastel, acrylic, embroidery thread and Mull fabric on canvas

‘Fidelity 2’  800 x 950mm – ink, pastel, acrylic and embroidery thread on unprimed canvas

[1] King, from Dance Fever album – 2023

“I need my golden crown of sorrow, my bloody sword to swing

My empty halls to echo with grand self-mythology

I am no mother, I am no bride, I am king.“