Photo courtesy of Mary Beth Edelson.
When researching artists who had used goddess imagery and mythology in their work, I read about Mary Beth Edelson in the book 'Overlay' by the art historian Lucy R Lippard. This book explains how prehistoric art has influenced the work of many contemporary artists. It contains illustrations that make links between megaliths, hills, labyrinths, sculpture, earthworks, rituals, and the body. It also points out the overlapping human interests between our ancient ancestors and ourselves.
Mary Beth was born in 1933 and is considered to be a pioneer of the feminist art movement. She is a printmaker, book artist, painter, collage artist, photographer, and performance artist. She was also is the founder of 'Heresies' magazine. In the early 1970's she began making representations of the goddess and this aspect of her work is of particular interest to me.
Photograph courtesy of Mary Beth Edelson.
The picture below is an installation piece called 'Gate of Horn', it was shown in A.I.R Gallery (which was New York's first all-female gallery) in 1977. The picture fascinated me, I was particularly interested in the way Mary had creating an environment that resembled a church or temple. By constructing a doorway or entrance she has created a threshold and invoked a sense of an 'inner and outer sanctum.' An inner sanctum implies that there is something very precious or holy within.
Mary Beth Edelson's 'Gates of Horn', AIR Gallery, [installation] New York.
The viewer is invited to walk between the twin pillars/doorway and enter into 'another world', the sacred space within. The reflection of the flaming ladder on the floor draws the viewers' eyes up to the 'altar' area, to the actual flames and the ladder which ascends upwards. The ladder's shadow is seen on the wall behind. There is a clever use of light, shadow, and reflections in this piece which add gravitas to the work. I felt inspired to create something similar in my presentation at the end of this term.
I like the symbolic journey through the doorway towards the altar, the concept of a sacred journey, and the idea of returning from the experience somehow changed by it. The whole thing reminds me of the birth/death/rebirth process. It also got me thinking about how often paleolithic goddess figurines and shamanic figurines have been found at the innermost part of a cave (which suggests to me that our ancestors valued and protected these figurines).
Various 'Venus' Figurines from around the world.
Through further research, I discovered that the basic design for churches, cathedrals, and Masonic temples is based on the (surprisingly detailed) biblical description of the Temple of Solomon. This design has been followed for centuries with little historical evidence to support it, until recently.
The Temple of Jerusalem, (according to Professor D. Harden)
The discovery of various Iron Age temples in the Levant has corroborated the biblical description of the Temple of Solomon and confirmed that it is typical of the period (Garfinkel and Mumcuoglu, 2019). This made me wonder if the three-fold design of outer court, inner court, and sacred sanctuary dates back even further, possibly back to the cave dwellers of paleolithic times?
References
Lippard, L.R. (1983) Overlay: contemporary art and the art of prehistory. Panteon Books: New York.
Garfinkel, Y and Mumcuoglu, M. (2019) The Temple of Solomon in Iron Age Context. Institute of Archaeology, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Relgions 2019, 10, 198: doi:10.3390/rel10030198 www.mdpi/com/jornal/religions. (accessed 12/2/2021).
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