Crit presentation with Rick, "Matriarch" ...why? Why the "witch"? The witch is the matriarch - both the demon and what is deemed to be valuable in women.

 

In explaining the impact of the Leonardo cartoon transcription by Saville, Rick suggested that I could consider the same approach. I do have a curation of witch paintings on ArtUK so will go back and look at these to make a response to one or more. I need to look at appropriation again - I think I've got responses and appropriation and transcriptions in a big mess in my mind.

I'm running with this title at the moment because it just operates in so many different ways. Matriarch is the opposite of patriarch, it references the role that women used to hold in society and how matriarchal is perceived now. In using it to explore the role of women, it automatically adopts the position of the female identity being wrapped up in motherhood and reproduction - even if women don't want, can't have or have lost children. It disregards care from men and non binary genders.  

I have a small photograph of my sister as a child who was a huge carer (matriarch) for me as a child - when she was still at junior school.

At the crit, when I was asked to explain the reasoning for the title... I felt I had to review my research to give the bigger picture of what I was considering - and I felt I'd not answered the question directly but tried to illustrate the historical social position of women. (baby eating/midwifes being pushed out, only valuable women were complicit child bearing women/ privitisation/monitisation/ evolution of the family and lineage ) I need to tap into the above to be more concise - clearer in my intentions. And maybe go back to W.I.T.C.H... What is this corporeal human. Women will never be able to identify as a women without their body being a huge element of the identifying profile. .. breasts, uterus, the natural/biological /scientific ability to reproduce and the instant to nurture (???????)

Asked about - why the witch - and not the experience? Rick suggested a painting by the school gates with all of the mums. I responded by explaining that this in itself has societal expectations - (it's actually a real mix of people that pick up, but not all children of my sons age are, lots of kids are able to walk home) 

but I have considered this previously, because in order to fit the school collection into your socially constructed life, it's often by doing this activity back to back with other paid or unpaid work and often this results in eating or having 5 minutes rest in the car (if you have a car) I have a photo /insta post that I did a while back of me eating a pasta pot, doing some research in an effort to self care and continue my studies whilst simultaneously being there to care for my child. In my working life - this has been evident for so many women that I've worked with. Maybe I'll pull out the pasta pot photo and paint it, to see what happens.

I am drawn to and wrestling with the contemporary understanding of the witch and not how women navigate the repercussions of the witch trials. Maybe by looking to the salem documents, I can pull out references and decontextualise them.

These slides acted as visual aids so that my influences and work/feedback could be referenced during the crit. I'm keen to paint a response to the Witch by John Currie but in the crit this reference operated as an example of the language and how witch was still being used to demonise women in art throughout the last century. I would like to do a response to this but rather than focus on Dolly Henry as I did in my placement, maybe I should focus on a portrait of Currie as the perpetrator and assign a label to him?

Is this an opportunity to work with PMAG again? Would they show it?

This is on my radar and Sophie has come back to me - I need to check on legalities around photographs.(She questioned IP Law) 

We didn't talk hugely about how the work is received other than trying to bottom out what it was saying in terms of the witch - I explained that the composition /approach was an effort to translate the photo into a way to share a contemporary experience of the witch archetype as a child. 

We didn't talk about Held (tobacco tin) and I referenced the wotsit monster as far as to explain that I am drawn to the child and their world into escapism and monsters.  I don't know if its pushing the scope of what I'm doing but I'm enjoying it.. I need to keep checking my scope/focus / it's probably time to review my research objective sheet using this crit.