Mary Beth Edelson

 

Mary Beth Edelson

Having only recently discovered the ‘goddess’ art of Edelson whilst researching the works of Annie Sprinkle, this will be only an initial sketch of my impressions of her work, but it seems destined to feature more heavily as research continues. Her photographic collages or montages combine elements of mythology, folklore, spirituality, mark-making, art history and popular culture (sometimes with an obvious sense of humour) – all subjects and ideas which have heavily influenced my work over the years.

            The untitled work in ‘Illustration 1’ presents Edelson’s nude body, decorated with elements of life and death: the ancient (and almost universal, being recorded across multiple human cultures and ages) spiral motif enveloping the belly, and a string of human skulls (both suggesting the death/rebirth duality inherent in the Hindu goddess Kali) with a Sheela-na-gig head superimposed upon the artist’s own. This reference to the puzzling Celtic fertility figures, usually found in British churches and often portrayed in sexually explicit poses, embodies eternal femininity in all its forms – transcending borders and genres, the work also cleverly obscures the model’s genital region in a move which renders the body somewhat non-gendered (or bi-gendered, if we wish to interpret the scarf/tail motif as a surrogate penis, rising up from the groin area). This deliberate ambiguity renders the body of the model as a genuinely mythological form, a being not constructed by social or cultural dogma, but referencing the origins of all human life – not just its source (from the female body), but in the fact that all humans in an embryonic stage embody this duality and ambiguity, with definable biological sex detectable via ultrasound usually only after 4 months or so of growth in the womb). The figure arises out of the earth, towering into the air, suggesting both power, integration (feet rooted in the earth, hands and head in the sky, traversing the elements of both male and female symbolism), and also worship – the drawn elements of the arms may indicate waving, or some form of ritualistic, ecstatic movement, or even a simple playful gesture of personal freedom and pleasure.

Illus. 1

            Illustration 2, entitled ‘TV Head Spirit’, deals with similar imagery and ideas, but rather than referencing the ancient (Sheela-na-gig), it juxtaposes a television set with a body representative of the eternal feminine. My reading of this is that, as TV now takes the place of religion in telling people how to think and behave, Edelson’s primal matriarch has ‘taken control’ of this media and form of communication for her own ends, presenting a message of female empowerment and individuality contrary to the traditional norms of female domesticity and glamour that would have been prevalent in 1973 (the date, seemingly, of the making of the piece – see bottom right corner). This idea of appropriating the medium of the orthodox hegemony is one I have deliberately pursued myself in recent times, as a queer/nonbinary individual in the white/cis/straight male-dominated genres of comic book work and extreme heavy metal music. Herein, the medium is indeed the message: Edelson’s feminist spirit has ‘possessed’ the physical form of the TV set.

Illus. 2