On Aggression and Resistance
A Monument of Anti Patriarchal Anger
A Monument of Anti Patriarchal Anger
In 1961 Niki de Saint Phalle by her own account shot her father shot all men shot the Church shot the school and shot her own image. She raised her rifle and fired at a relief like painting behind which bags filled with paint plaster and other materials had been embedded. As the bullets struck the contents burst open and spilled onto the white surface like blood.
With the 'Tir' series Saint Phalle processed the personal trauma of being abused by her father in a magical ritual of catharsis that became a furious public and socio critical protest. Women and people socialized as women are then as now subjected to relentless pressure constant surveillance and forced to conform to contradictory norms that simultaneously demand passivity care desirability and self sacrifice in order to uphold patriarchal rule.
The anger that arises from this is not a flaw but a sign of injustice. It drives transformation while guilt and shame paralyze it. How can we collectively harness this inevitable anger in creative ways instead of being numbed by it?
In reference to Saint Phalle’s 'Tir' series, I named my ceramic-metal sculpture series “Punch”. It is a body of biomorphic ceramic sculptures created through direct physical engagement with raw clay. For hours I strike massive clay blocks with my fists with inherited family rings and with symbols of mythological figures such as Lilith Medusa or Inanna.
The works stand on scaffolds made of reinforcing steel a material typically used as the inner skeleton of concrete structures. Here it serves as the legs and bones of the main body. Rising up to 1.90 meters in height the sculptures assume a statuesque presence both monumental and vulnerable a subversive renegotiation of historically male coded images of power.
'Punch' is a form of anti patriarchal rage that does not seek to destroy but to transform. The objects remain in a state of tension between raw violence and delicate surface between the mythological depth of the biblical material and pop cultural references between trauma and healing.
The punching process is long and physically intense. The blocks weighing between 10 and 70 kilograms are worked by hand while still wet and unfired. I train in various forms of martial arts to sustain this process. I wear old family rings or others bearing the heads of Medusa or the claws of Inanna. The initial act of violence is slowly overtaken by the careful process of hollowing firing and glazing the object.
What remains are crystal like mountains of color and texture merging into each other where the marks of my fists now appear as soft shimmering curves. The sculpture is placed on a base that I have welded myself from reinforcing steel a material that normally serves as the hidden skeleton within architectural concrete. Here it supports a body that speaks of pain power resistance and transformation.