This is a project initiated by the Soroptimist International of Fremantle celebrating the centenary of Women's Suffrage. The Soroptimist International ‘is the world's largest women's community service organization and their main focus is the advancement of the status of women in the professions and all other aspects of life’.
The Rebirth project includes: The exhibition at the Moores Building, the publication of the book by Jan Altmann and Julie Prott called Out of the Sitting Room - A history of early WA women Artists, and the free public seminar on Saturday 31st July. The exhibition brief for Rebirth was to present a cross-section of women artists from WA whose work may refer to the centenary of Women's suffrage or be an expression of women's lives and experiences.
This is a must see show. The exhibition successfully presents a rich variety of 40 women artists, working in a variety of media including jewellery, textiles, painting and mixed media installations including works by indigenous artists and artists from culturally diverse backgrounds. Refreshingly, well-known artists with formal and informal education and experiences are included along side artists who have little or no public exposure. Naturally with such a cross-section of works displayed, the quality of some of the works is not as strong as others, but overall, the exhibition invites contemplation. The exhibition was by and large displayed sensitively, and not over-hung.
The works cover a range of concerns: explorations of identity through personal family histories; broader more ‘universal’ stories of suffering and oppression; and affirmatory and positive expressions of womanhood. There are also more subtle and poetic works with quieter claims to place and identity. The catalogue provides further insight into each artist's experience and the artists' statements provide context for the works as well as confirming the cross section of ages and ethnicities. Also welcome is the pre-seminar publication of the essays which feature at the back of the catalogue.
Understanding current notions of identities through the remembrance of our mothers’ stories of struggle, migration, journeys and pain, informed much of the work in Rebirth. Also, a common thread is formed from the experiences and questioning of traditional notions of what constitutes womanhood. Many works use ‘genteel’ crafts of embroidery, stitching and weaving to explore representations of body and landscape.
Pantjiti Mary Mclean's delightful, colourful Kapl pulkanya....the rockhole presents a picture of the artist's daily Western Desert experiences. Her characteristic stick people gather around a rockhole, whilst a dog has captured a goanna, the welcome source of a meal to share. Mclean says ‘Kids can run along and play, and after that they come straight to their mothers. Musn't go anywhere else’.
Sandra Hill's mixed media work on paper White Wedding juxtaposes copy of text from the Chief Protector of Aborigines, dated 1928, with two loosely drawn portraits of a bride and photos of the artist and her parents’ wedding days. These images are surrounded by more traditional indigenous motifs. After 1905, indigenous people were required to seek permission to marry. Her parents were married legitimately in 1949. As a child, and as commonly happened, Hill was forcibly removed from her family in 1958. She too had to request permission to marry in 1968. Hill's work is a reminder of our recent history, and the draconian and racist laws that Aboriginal people suffered and continue to suffer. Hill's work also serves as a reminder of the continuing oppression of all peoples.
Julie Downing's unforgettable painting Melbin is also challenging because of its powerful portrayal of her great great grandmother Melbin. Melbin was taken from her community to marry a white fella. In this painting Melbin is pictured before she set sail to England where her husband presented her as a ‘native novelty’. Melbin stares out from the picture plane; her gaze is direct, strong, confronting, yet pained. Surrounding her portrait is a halo-like shape. This area is painted in a pearlescent bronze with Downing's dotty technique. Images of handcuffs, Aboriginal motifs and colonial ships are further reminders of the enforced journey from Melbin's country. Beyond this halo area are loosely painted faces of Aboriginal women, women who experienced the same fate as Melbin. Today, no photographs of Melbin exist. This loss underlines the importance of Downing's work in continuing to speak loudly and clearly of her great grandmother's tragic story.
Mary Moore's piece My Grandmother and Me includes an exquisitely fine flower painting by her grandmother Gladys Haynes. Moore chose to paint her response to her grandmother's flower painting by painting her own. As she says, she hoped to "develop a linkage back to the female members of (her) family, not by representing them, but by including their work. It's a kind of family self portrait which explores the different issues of being a woman in this century through the vehicle of flower painting." Both flower paintings are sensitively painted, the earlier piece revealing years of memories in the surface cracking. The placement of these works alongside each other provides an interesting and subtle tribute to understanding women's identity and the relationships between our mothers and our selves.
The Labour of Love - Generation I and II, prints by Simona Piscioneri, are also poetic explorations of the relationship between the artist and her mother; "personal history tends to weave itself into generation after generation, and I find reasons and reminders for my own attitudes and identity which relate to my mother". This imperative is also prevalent in the works of Elizabeth Rechichi Oma (Dutch for Grandmother) who traces her Grandmother's history in Holland after the 2nd World War and her subsequent migration to Perth. Elizabeth uses photos as well as mixed media - an embroidered doily in one panel, iron ore in another - that evoke the greyness of the war torn Holland her Grandmother left behind. These are moving vignettes of sadness, loss and a new life in Australia.
Anne Neil's She wore white, is made from numerous plastic wedding cake pillars that form the frail, skeleton of a white (wedding) gown rising from the floor. Behind this is a wall piece, made from various wooden skirting boards forming a rectangle. On closer inspection this dark, brooding work features the word ‘HELP’ repeated along the top edges of the skirting boards. Perhaps not coincidental is the placement of these two works next to a barred window. The traditional resonances of the institution of marriage, constantly marketed as ideal, seductive and perfect, are embedded in the gown. These ideals are interrupted and questioned by the darker cries for Help.
Elsje Van Keppel and Sarah Hope's textile pieces are subtle earth toned pieces with much stitching. With Elsje the grid is prevalent. Sarah's piece is more of an abstracted land-body-scape. Beautifully presented alongside their work is Nalda Searles's organic Lissen. Like a ceremonial object, Nalda's piece is sensuous and gritty and made from Xanthorrhea and grass which is stitched with linen thread. Joyce Winsley's earthy and equally engaging grassy Mother and Baby could have complemented this space but, unfortunately, it is located in the main room.
More effective delicious stitching is present in Holly Story's 3 portraits Women I Admire. "I wanted to embroider these shoes for the sheer pleasure. of it, for the lusciousness of the embroidered surface, and to pay my respects to a few of the many admirable women I have come across in my life". The subject matter, women's shoes and their lower legs, is quirky and expressive. My favourite here was Carmen Lawrence's blue shoes, which will continue to resonate after her recent not guilty status.
One of the more successful new media pieces in the show is the neon and glass Heart, 1999, by Patricia Schuttler. Suspended in a darkened space, the rushing, fluid, pulsating heart is beautiful, unnerving, and visceral. Another subtle work Not by Antoinette Carrier continues the artist's interest in challenging notions about otherness. I viewed this work from within the exhibition space and upon leaving the show, I noticed its reverse side facing the street-front. This view of the work was ragged and cruder with threads of yarn creating a more mysterious, amorphous figure. The experience of seeing the other side of this work, was most rewarding and highlighted for me that looking or seeing ‘otherness’ can be often be refreshing and engaging.
The most enjoyable wall was the joyous, dancing 23 hand-stitched rag dolls by the local Narrogin women from the Bibdjool Craft Centre. Mavis Bolton, Lesley Riley, Lizzie Riley and Jean Riley have used a range of soft, predominantly recycled materials. Each doll is crudely stitched and has its own quirky, mischievous character, some even donning the Aboriginal flag. Again, the unselfconsciousness and sophisticated inventiveness of these works made them a delight to view.
Rebirth is successful because it presents many women's stories, many threads of our lives and of our mothers’ lives. The works in this exhibition enrich our understanding of how our identities are shaped and formed through histories and memories. Rebirth affirms the presence of strong, determined women in our past and present and provides us with confidence that women will continue to be inventive, creative and provocative in the new millennium.
I encourage you to see the show, buy the catalogue and go to the seminar on Saturday 31st August at the Moores Building.
(check out Amanda Paige Alderson's exhibit Freshmart 'The Essence of Food' )