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Mütter

This collection fuses nurture with repulsion, to explore the mother archetype as the all devouring female.

Mutter Text

The knitted sculptures aim to challenge traditional ideas on femininity.  The work examines the conflict between individual needs, against the pressure created by society to conform to a standard role and beauty ideal.

 

Inspired by the body, the work takes inspiration from Sigmund Freud’s and Carl Jung’s research into our early psychosexual development.  The Mütter collection explores the nurturing-duplicity of the Mother archetype, as the homely associations of textiles become uncanny, when formed into internal organs and other taboo body parts.  

According to Freud, female gendering is based on masculine terms (male=penis vs. female=no penis) - with no reference to the womb or vagina.  Inspired by the importance of the phallus in Western culture, the work reconfigures the Oedipus complex to blur gender boundaries.

Fusing the high with the low, Nippy, has overtones of the serpent in the biblical tale Adam and Eve, and consists of a long knitted intestine, culminating in a phallic-like breast.  Intestines evoke the greatest disgust with their ability to digest, liquidise and vaporise, and level all humans.

 

Inspired by the minimalistic creatures in the film Aliens, Mutter III, fuses several oedipal stages, with a collection of phallic-nipples and a multi-functional anus-mouth.  The long intestinal appearance, of Mutter V,  blends tactile seduction with disgust, as the fluffy white knitting is juxtaposed with coarse hair and an ambiguous cell-sack. 

 

Exploring the similarity of flora to female sexual organs, Mutter VII features a phallic-tongue.  In Mutter IV, the girly innocence of the colour pink is counteracted with pubic hair to celebrate the natural female form.  The work explores our cultural fear of female genitalia; where societal taboos and subtle peer pressure serve to reinforce patriarchal, capitalist ideals, and leave many women feeling ashamed of their own bodies.

 

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