Pieta: Gaia (2023)
The Pieta motif has long captured me. A mother mourning her child who was sacrificed for a larger cause brings to mind issues of the injustices related to the death. In many ways, the motif has moved beyond its Catholic origin as artists have appropriate it to address other political issues, such as Kathe Kollwitz’s depicting the horrors of war through a mother crying over her dead child or Rene Cox’s “Yo Mama’s Pieta” photograph of a Black mother cradling her dead son. In my Pieta I was thinking about our current realities of global warming and the victims of what humans are doing to our earth. The human-caused poisoning hurts all of Mother Earth’s children, and she mourns.
Process Photos
Materials: Cardboard, Romney Wool, Plant Materials, natural Powder Pigments, Fabric, Feathers, Handmade Coconut Paper
Internal structure of Mamma-Gaia is a cardboard armature upon which layers of the cardboard strips are glued. Her hair is Romney wool lightly felted to hold in place. Her skirt is handmade paper. The Child's base is a cloth baby mannequin, with a raven head that was created in cardboard and feathers applied. The coloration is created on both figures using powdered natural pigments.
48" x 27" x 27"
Internal structure of Mamma-Gaia is a cardboard armature upon which layers of the cardboard strips are glued. Her hair is Romney wool lightly felted to hold in place. Her skirt is handmade paper. The Child's base is a cloth baby mannequin, with a raven head that was created in cardboard and feathers applied. The coloration is created on both figures using powdered natural pigments.
48" x 27" x 27"