"Ethnic Icon 2"mixed media canvas from 2012. 48x65cm. Applique, machine embroidery, felting |
In my last blog I explained why I ditched Instagram.
This blog is the place where I’m entitled to say whatever I
want, including any, all or some of my contrarian views. If you disagree please
understand I strive to make this a safe place where I’m not demanding or expecting
you’re here just to provide the passive applause soundtrack. If you feel inclined
to comment, to disagree with anything I’ve said, I welcome it.
I’m not a great
all knowing Buddha sitting on my lotus throne dispensing pearls of wisdom. I
won’t be shocked or outraged if you rush up and kick my halo off and jump on it
(although I hope you’ll refrain from spitting on it). I actually concede, like
other adults in the room, I don’t have all the answers, I’m not always right (possibly
even seldom). My views are always conditioned because they arise from the circumstances in which my identity
has been formed…. but I try to express what I think coming from an understanding
that my lifetime is a continuum of learning, revision and striving to find an
ethical way of living within flexible orthodoxies.
"Ethnic Icon 1" mixed media canvas, 2012. 39x62cm.Applique, machine embroidery, acrylic paint |
Above all,
I always aspire to work from an orthodoxy that is cosmopolitan, flexible to be
re-evaluated and inclusive. I want to be a member of the human race, not somebody confined to having a voice limited by "race", nationality, culture, religious beliefs (none) or gender.
That all
sounds pretty virtuous and high minded so I’ll acknowledge it’s a never ending
project to keep that inclusivity open to people I judge as tribal and dogmatic.
As soon as I say to myself “this is my position” in my head I’ll start
formulating and running the opposing view and feel compelled to allow that that
idea has authenticity too. It is a paradox of holding a cosmopolitan attitude
that if its applied with due integrity you have to allow that diverging
opinions and world views, arising from individual subjectivity, identity and
multiple intersectionalities, are no less authentic than our own.
Born in 1959, so I’m now 61, I’ve lived through a
fascinating era. The second wave of feminism, that I was too young to understand
or be involved in, made irrevocable changes to how my life has panned out. Political
and social changes wrought by “Womens Liberation” meant my life was no longer going
to be confined to the world of domesticity. My own mother had to leave her job
when she got married. As her firstborn child I grew up with the expectation I’d
work outside “home”, have the option of tertiary education and quite possibly even
have a professional career. I had access to what was quaintly termed “birth
control” which allowed me to engage in out of marriage sexual relationships without
the consequence of an unwanted pregnancy. In 1971 after my mother got divorced she
couldn’t get a mortgage from the bank to buy a house because of not having a
husband. She had to persist and fight just to get a loan to buy a car. 60 years
later all this must be virtually inconceivable to young women.
Penelope, a necklace I made from 2016 (the face image is 18thC historical and out of copyright) |
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