So I started a piece way back in my last studio ,2016, I was trying to tackle the tricky idea of male and female energy. We have all existed in a Patriarchy for the last few thousand years, in the last few hundred years ,the attitudes represented by this system have become very difficult ,for the planet and its inhabitants.
When I say male and female energy I do not mean men and women, I mean the dualistic energy in all of us. We have both, as Jung said ,calling this the anima and the animus.
I chose for my symbol of male energy the pyramid, as it is very hierarchical. The top of the pyramid has space for only a few, and represents the way the world is currently organized. Power lies at the top as does most of the worlds wealth.
For female energy I chose moss, it is linear and covers pretty much everything given the right conditions. It represents grass roots, spreading to wherever it is needed. As a stand in for moss ,as it is difficult to visually depict ,I have also used feathers , dust ,honeycomb, fetuses.
I read Martha Ballard’s diaries, she was a midwife on the East coast of the US in the 1700’s. She describes a time when birthing babies was a female occupation, right before male doctors took it over as a lucrative proposition. She describes such a different time, everyone’s work loads were huge, not only make the meals , but grow the food, make the clothes but also grow the flax. A lot of these operations were communal as was midwifery-a group of women attended a birth-the most experienced one was called the midwife, but everyone went through a process of being trained informally. She talks about how many people she had relationships with as she was often paid in kind ,or by having help in her households endeavours. Her birth stats were compatible with today’s birthing numbers.
When the male doctors took over, it was much more straightforward in terms of a cash transaction and the birthing mortality rates plunged ,as forceps and more intrusive instruments were used .Interestingly the midwife’s connection with the community, were very involved, over time she would have connections with everyone in the area,the doctor by contrast came to the birth , was paid and went home.
This book really informed my feeling about how connected women are to their communities, how the female energy works, although as a disclaimer ,none of us really know, what it would be to live under a more dominant female energy and the goal at this point of human development is equality.
