BEGINNINGS
Preconception to Conception of ‘Womb Women’
This story began back in 2015 when I had to find a way to speak up, to find my voice. I created for myself my very own Voice Project, it began with discovering and exploring the root of my voice, connecting with the voices of all women who have gone before me, my blood lineage, my teachers, their stories, their experiences of being alive as women. Acknowledging that the DNA within my very own voice box and vocal cords, contains the DNA (some strong and some diluted) of every woman of my blood line.
Feeling and honouring that the foundation of my own ‘Voice’, my own story, was and is being deeply supported by the collective wisdom of each woman who has directly or indirectly touched and fed my own personal narrative.
From there I explored what my voice, physically and metaphorically, actually sounds like, what do I have to say, how do I want to say it, what is mine to say, is there something in particular that I am here to say.
This umbilical thread, between my own story of living here and now, and the heritage of women’s voices from my past, is like a synapse that simply gets stronger and stronger the more tap into it. A connection that feeds, nourishes, offers sustenance for all those moments when I need courage to truly speak up.
2020 and an idea took root in my mind...
to create single lines of small women to represent womb to womb lineage, drawn to the idea of being able to hold one of these individual creations in the palm of my hand, I guess a bit like a token which represents the wisdom of the ancient mother in all women.
As I sat and sculpted each woman, I became deeply aware that the bone and flesh of my own hands held the DNA of all my mothers ... centuries upon centuries of grandmothers. I wondered how many of them had their own stories of shaping clay, forming sculptural figures, moulding pots. I imagined all of them having had some special way of creating with their hands, what was it my grandmother of 200 thousand years ago created I wondered.
I felt and still feel a sense of wonder when looking at my hands, a whole new perspective opens up with the knowledge that, through the evolution of humanity, the hands of approximately 100 thousand womb to womb women of my unique bloodline, gave birth to my own.
I felt a drive to create these small women for others as well. So often sculptures are created to be placed somewhere aesthetically pleasing, to be viewed only, not to be touched for risk of damage etc. I wanted these figures to be very touchable, to be cradled in the palms of hands, perhaps even cherished. And on a practical level I wanted them to be accessible and therefore affordable.
And so over a hundred small womb woman were created … conception of a much bigger project, that I no idea of at the time, had begun.
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Having set up for the 2020 Arts tour I was blown away by the powerful impact of seeing lines and lines of these womb women, representing the continuum of now through to the first mother, and the overwhelming response from others.
Most of these first Womb Women now have new homes.
Witnessing the delight in people as they created their own thread of womb lineage.
Sharing stories and the names of grandmothers going back several generations.
Sharing conversations about how as a human species we have been strong enough to survive this far, with each of us having our own unique womb to womb line, and yet as individuals we are also quite fragile, many matriarchal lines have ended simply due to a girl not being born.
And, many lines will continue for generations upon generations to come.
Each small Womb Woman I make is individual and special in her own right. To see a whole line of women together had my heart skipping a beat.
CONCEPTION
my last backstory gem, the one that actually birthed this Womb Women Lineage project …
Whilst I was sitting in my little makeshift studio (as part of the 2020 Coromandel Arts Tour), forming yet another woman in my hands, noticing that this one a bit bigger than the last, I had a wild thought, what if I kept making them bigger and bigger.
Imagine if there was a line so long it filled an entire hall or gallery of some sort. What if the line started with the smallest in the front, then ever so gradually got bigger and bigger – in fact how big could I actually go? and how amazing would that look.
How powerful this would be as a symbol representing mitochondrial womb to womb lineage, from the current generation back to the first mother. I began to feel very excited.
I caught myself thinking I could not possibly pull off something so big, then in the next breath told myself ‘why not!’
I am my only obstacle …
and so the dream took hold,
I found myself telling people this was my next step and realised if that was the case then I had better put plans into action and make this project a reality.
Alchemy of fire … the Kiln
For me the kiln is a crucible, raw materials enter a process of fire and intense heat and an alchemic transformation occurs. A potent dance between heat, clay, oxides, and glaze. The higher the heat the darker and richer the clay can become, glass melts, pools and runs … there is always a sense of the unknown, you can never truly know what result will occur or what will be waiting for you when the kiln lid is opened.
I feel such a thrill of excitement when I load the kiln and then tenfold excitement when opening it, goodness knows what feast for the eyes and soul awaits me. I am never disappointed!
Gestation … the making begins
As I began making, experimenting with different clays and oxides, soon it became apparent that each mix had its own unique qualities.
The women emerging from the varied clays began birthing their own stories.
As Women we are all so diverse in how we are shaped, our skin colour, our beliefs, our ways of living … and so questions began forming in me, how can I begin to represent these varied differences of Woman, and yet also honour our sameness.
And I also, of course, want to acknowledge our ancient lines of women who are also just like us, alive as a woman in their own time’s, each one being just as unique as we are.
Each one of us has our own special womb to womb lineage, with a unique tone particular only to us, perhaps similar to another, however no one female whakapapa is truly the same as another.
From this arises the importance to create diversity in the women I create, so people can choose a representation of their own matriarchal lineage … the women they know of and can name, and beyond, each line with its own unique flavour known only to that particular umbilical blood line.
I also wanted textures and colours to offer a sense of ancientness, I love that fired clay figures can remain fully intact for thousands of years beneath the ground, and I wonder any one of these women I am making will make its way underground, only to resurface sometime in the far future.
Eve
Her skin is a deep rich dark terracotta red, with even darker red/black shadows that reflect the light back out. Skin texture is slightly rough, telling of the rich earth that she has been made from.
Eve is my first attempt at building on a large scale, exploring how big I can go and still fit in the kiln. Eve is my first time using the coiling technique, building up height using row after row of long snake-like lengths of rolled clay, blending the rows together as I go. By using this technique, I can build big, high, and hollow, thereby controlling the thickness of the clay walls.
It is one thing to be forming women in the palms of my hands, muscle memory from creating many instinctually forming the next, and the next, on and on. Building at the opposite end of the scale, using different techniques, requires a new set of building skills, forging new neural pathways of memory. A new dialogue with the clay needs to be created that will form new muscle memory, and as I go through the motions of building at this scale it will become easier and easier, simply though building one woman after the other.
Eve represents the first mother of my line, the beginning place, the first human womb that has led to my being alive now. And just as evolution makes subtle and/or spontaneous changes is us as a human species, so too does Eve represent my starting point. From her I will adjust, tweak, make changes, some big and some small, as I decide through many ongoing experiments the shape and direction of the Womb Women Lineage project.
