Red Threads
I have, for a very long time, been fascinated by the role women play as the tie that binds, both biologically and culturally. Given the fact that a woman is born with all the eggs she will ever have, the egg that dropped down to become Lucy Catherine Russell Burns, 1826-1903, formed in her grandmother’s body. The egg that became my grandmother, Sara Ann “Sadie” Kenyon Rigsbay, 1912-1986, formed in the body of Lucy’s daughter, and the egg that became me formed in Sadie’s body. Lucy’s grandmother and I may be seven generations apart, but our degree of separation seems barely a blip when considered from this perspective. In fact, pushing down to the mitochondrial DNA level, there is no separation at all - my mitochondrial DNA is exactly the same as that of Lucy’s “lost to history” grandmother.
Mitochondrial DNA, with the exception of the rare mutation, is passed from mother to child unchanged - identical from generation to generation. The body of research to date has identified only four major haploid groups for mitochondrial DNA, descended from a single mitochondrial Eve. We, the human race, are truly one family bound by vast matriarchal ties expressed to this day in our flesh.
I find this profound and incomprehensible in the sense that I can’t quite wrap my mind around it. Instinctually, I feel an immense and important truth that I can only try to share in words and images that all fall short and must be revisited again and again. I have been visiting this theme recently in the form of mono-prints and collage.
In caves all over the world, ancient humans left their mark in ochre handprints, abstract symbols, and lifelike animal paintings. In my imagination these are the expressive outpouring of my sister artists spanning time. I honor them in the colors and background textures of these pieces, my own cave walls. The repeated heads and shoulders are derived from a photograph I took of myself. The universal symbol for “woman” speaks for itself, and the other forms are taken from the rich trove of Venus figurines. The use of text, both in terms of actual printed material, and in the use of asemic script is meant to convey the role of women as story tellers in the transmission of culture, writ small within the context of our own families and writ large in the context of all human history. The backgrounds and the individual collage papers are unique mono-prints created using gel plate printing techniques. Marks are made directly using acrylic paint and gel pens.
If my expression can only capture an echo of the great truths I sense, I hope the echo is one that you, too, can hear.
Text and images by Wanda Oliver, all rights reserved.
