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"Archaeological, mythological and historical evidence all reveal that the female religion, far from naturally fading away, was the victim of centuries of continual persecution and suppression by the advocates of the newer religions which held male deities as supreme. And from these new religions came the creation myth of Adam and Eve and the tale of the loss of Paradise.”

― Merlin Stone, When God Was a Woman (1978)

 

“Forbidden Fruit” plays with the mythological Garden of Eden as a place of questioning and metaphor. This group show of work explores motherhood, craft, and nature in over 30 works of art from around the country and world. 

 

Eve is the metaphorical stand in for all women and all mothers and also a representation that is questioned in this show. “Roles that traditionally fall on women such as that of parent, nurse, teacher, educator etc do not need to be a means of oppressing women. On the contrary, as long as these roles are valued as important societal achievements the women who perform these roles are esteemed in their community.”- Societies of Peace Matriarchies, Past, Present and Future (1). Images of the figure and especially the female form in the show either reveal insights into motherhood or utilize abstraction of the body in ways that subvert the male gaze. Fragmentation of the body merging with space can be seen in the layered enigmatic paintings: such as in Man in the Jungle by Denise Reichenbach and also in shape shifting bodies of “Divers II” by Aparna Sarkar. Motherhood is examined as fraught and emotionally complex in the symbolic works in the show. “Ameryca’s Two Sons” by DaNice D Marshall. shows two son’s: one dressed as an american flag leaps from the table while a second more behaved child draws serenely. “Rear View Mirror” by Kara Patrowicz represents a mothers watchful eye -we see what she sees: her baby, the road and more abstractly nature passing by all at once.  Christl Stringer and Ariel Freiberg show the ways women push themselves to extremes from metaphorical balancing acts to impossible feets of multitasking. Amy Reidel’s ceramic mombies show the pain and humor of being a mother or grandmother as children are permanently glued to their sleepless bodies. Other figures enter political forests as in Annika Sarin’s unbelonging 1 which shows women's pain while critiquing the “unbelonging” history of colonization.

 

Craft is another once taboo theme that is a celebrated motif in the show. The Pattern and Decoration movement artists in the 1970’s debunked and called out the pejorative use of the words “decorative” or “craft” as mere sexism masquerading as art theory, yet many of these ideas still pervade today (2). Powerful intricately embroidered collage work by Venetia Dale hides the phrase “mother said no” in a cacophony of references to pop culture and floral forms. Jacquelyn Strycker’s printed psychedelic “Crazy Quilt” seems to propose new shape possibilities for blankets giving the pattern an almost anthropomorphic form.  Ceramic sculpture “Conglomerate V” by Lauren Skelly Bailey shows a conceptual amalgamation of mosses, leaves, a mountain or an underwater coral reef that is dying and coming back to life all at once. 

 

Wilderness in the show is depicted as lucious, exploding open with light, and endless mystery. Nature seems primordial in the detailed, paper work “When Darkness is At Its Darkest, That Is the Beginning of All Light” by Alexandra Chiou, or in the astral kiss in the stars by Berly Brown. Light is broken down into a warm color spectrum in Rebecca Robert’s painting “The First Half of June.” In Su A Chae’s cubist jungle titled “Journey” wild creatures dart about just out of view. Depictions of fruit in the show are playful and probing with references to movement and the body. Rachel Morrissey’s “Blue Blume” has a snake or vine that, glowing neon, creeps towards the viewer in the dead of night. “What The Garden Gave Me” by Julia Curran pokes fun at the cycles of birth, aging, and death behind a magical set of doors springing open or closed depending on how you choose to view the work. 

 

In summary the whimsical, wild work in “Forbidden Fruit” creates a lush environment to enter into as the viewer is asked to probe and question the meaning and value of craft, motherhood, creation myths and nature today. 

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Hillary Doyle

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 (1)Societies of Peace: Matriarchies Past, Present, and Future, edited by Heide Goettner-Abendroth (2003)

 (2)Art Hysterical Notions of Progress and Culture. Valerie Jaudon and Joyce Kozloff, (1978)