Notes:
critical reflection- crit. with Leora brook (expand my painterly language through producing multiple boards of thinly applied acrylic and other mediums - Jin Han Lee talk on grounded pigments to refine and develop my process /ways of working
-impressions of fast drying drips of paint
-use this as a base for my floral botanical impressions - hyperpigmentation emphasis on the natural phenomena bioluminescence and structural colour
-less restrictive ,liberating, more dynamic process (this I feel shines through in the work)
evolve my colour palette Naples yellow/ cadium orange/emerald green/violet-jules olitski/
making my stretcher .....
Chalkie- symbolism of flora and its relation to female-botanical painterly information on the side as experimental work I hope to incorporate in my paintings as motifs (botany and female stereotypes and gender roles) diaphanous
continuing this theme of the aquatic, softened, spherical, cyclical shapes (eccentric abstraction) and aquatic marine imagery-bioluminescence / structural colour-the artificial synthetic perspective of organic material- (using commercially aesthetically pleasing colour ways/combinations -reflect cultured breeding of flora .the genetically modified/ enhanced etc .. and how we constantly try to mimic natures wondrous qualities in beauty products/the commercial world. -structural colour
materiality of paint is thin it is a liquid and I like to emphasise its characteristics in the visual painted language through streamline, soft, undulating forms and organic shapes.
-lee bul - commercialisation of sex
-simians cyborgs and women
Collaborative Work:
Synergistic Serendipity
Moving into Unit 3, I would like to further explore and develop painterly processes in relation to the wonderous, synthetic, bodily qualities of the natural and organic. Moreover, I will research and reflect on flora and its relationship to sensuality, the female, the Anthropocene, and Ecofeminism. Working collaboratively with Sarah Chalkie Cloonan has been an eye-opening and thoroughly productive experience as I have made newfound discoveries in my approach to practical work and thinking. This has resulted in a more varied and alternative body of work; whereby I consider flora, floriography and botanical symbolism in relation to female virtue, ancient mythology, and gender roles/female stereotypes.
Collaboration: notes and diagram of proposed botanical hanging representing 'female virtue'.
This concept of solely women working together and in unison conforms with ecofeminist ideals; as by joining forces, one generates more power to ignite social response. The Advocacy group for sustainable culture, set up by Brazilian women in 1964, epitomises this collective, collaborative effort and is a source of inspiration for many ecofeminists and my practice. Foundations of ecofeminist art stems from women around the world breaking the ‘continuum of Eurocentric patriarchal capitalist exploitation of women’ (Salleh, 1997, p11), natural resources and of indigenous peoples. I first-handily emphasise such ecofeminist concepts by collaborating and creating work in unison with friend, seamstress and mother of three, Sarah Chalkie. This tactic of working collectively has been utilised by women throughout history right up to modern day, with the ‘Me too Movement’ founded in 2006, a women’s campaign against sexual harassment and assault initiated by activist and survivor Tarana Burke.
Tarana Burke, born 1973, founder of 'Me Too Movement' (2006) social movement against sexual abuse and harassment
Women working in Unison: Judy Chicago
An inspiration to my individual and collaborative practice, Judy Chicago’s work is significant to ecofeminism, and relevant to how interactions between women and the environment have changed and developed since the 1970’s. By choosing to work together with women, Chicago lays the foundations for the united and empowered female. In order to create ‘The Birth Project’(1980-85), a collection of images combining painting and needlework that celebrate various aspects of the birth process, Chicago collaborated with more than 150 needle workers. This empowerment rejects the stereotypically passive, domesticated female role inflicted by men and ‘the mutual interiorization’ (Plumwood,1993,p21) of women and nature, as noted by ecofeminist writer Plumwood in her 1993 publication, ‘Feminism and the Mastery of Nature’. Both of Chicago’s collaborative projects, ‘The Birth Project, 1980-85’ and ‘The Dinner Party, 1979’ showcase the undeniably organic beauty and seamlessness between woman and the land; whilst also highlighting what man is not; a talented seamstress and child bearer.
Collaborative work: Judy Chicago, ‘Birth Tear’, (1982) embroidery on silk
Collaborative work: Judy Chicago, ‘The Dinner Party’ (1979)
Collaborative Work: Ecofeminist Muslin Hanging
Having reflected on the compact nature of our zine, Chalkie and I felt as though producing a wall hanging would allow for a more immersive, dynamic experience if this were to be exhibited within a gallery space or indeed outside; interconnected with the wilderness and reflecting natural light. The nature of the installation, rather like a shrine, would emphasise religious notions of worship, in turn glorifying the ‘divine and virtuous woman, intertwined and at one with nature’ (Plumwood, 1993, p8). Hanging our botanical, ecofeminist shrine using muslin, a translucent, free-flowing, diaphanous fabric, accentuates the mystical, otherworldly, and beguiling characteristics of natural phenomena, the organic world and the ethereal personification of ‘mother nature’. As with my previous photographs capturing flora in amongst chiffon; translucent fabric allows for nebulous shapes, shadows, and films of light to alter and interact with the space it occupies. This creates an interesting compositional balance of definitive flecks of visual information in amongst the obscure and enigmatic.
compilation/collation of images reflecting the organic intertwined with the synthetic, the ethereal and mystical, the feminine and sensual
Prior to creating our ecofeminist muslin hanging, Chalkie and I collated relevant imagery reflecting an artificial and synthetic perspective to the organic and unspoilt. Reminiscent of Swiss photographer Schudel’s imagery, these visuals viewed as a collective convey the divine, transient, and otherworldly qualities so innate to nature. With continual consideration of the dazzling ‘structural colours’ of organic matter and bioluminescence in botanical material; this sense of wondrousness and mystique to nature is something I wish to maintain throughout my artistic practice.
Employing a specific colour palette of predominantly ultramarine, prussian and cyan blues, combined with emerald and viridian greens, the printed muslin hangings take on an aquatic, submersed visual language. This free-flowing, fluid effect is further emphasised through printing sections of painted foundations (of layered films of translucent oils) onto diaphanous, malleable material. translating soft, con-caved, undulating, aerodynamic forms and impressions allow viewers to occupy an immersive and entrancing physical space of hanging muslin. Employing an organic, rounded, cyclical visual language, our hanging considers 'Eccentric Abstraction' as we reference botanical, bodily biomorphic shapes, evoking ‘sensuous female experience’ (Lippard, 1971, p.98).
experimenting with printing aquatic, amorphous botanical and female imagery onto diaphanous, translucent muslin material
By translating submerged, underwater imagery, visual material becomes indistinctive and nebulous. Both depth and a metaphorical barrier between the viewer and subject matter is created, portraying further mystery and intrigue behind something partially unobtainable. The viewer is both connected yet disconnected to what they are experiencing. This concept is much like that of a shrine; where one is deeply absorbed in a sacred and divine space that is somewhat foreign and transcendental to human understanding. I wish for our muslin hanging to reflect a similar sense of awe, allure, and wonder, empowering the female and natures divine qualities.
Gender Roles and The Domestic
Emily Wenman, collaborative work: botanical, ecofeminist muslin hanging reflecting the intertwinement of flora and female, (print, paint, embroidery on muslin)
Flora, Its Historic Resonance and Medicinal Value
Reflecting on the intertwinement of nature and femininity, our muslin hanging considers botanical symbolism within ancient mythology, floriography, and the formalization of flora through botanical textiles. Alluding to specific flowers and their representational value, monoprints of the Iris and Lily flower are included, symbolising stereotypically female qualities of fertility, fruitfulness, and purity. This ‘language of flowers’, known as floriography, was introduced in the Victorian era to facilitate the exchange of feelings among the simply unpoetic, or those who were forbidden to verbally communicate their passions. Our collaborative textile work takes advantage of the mystery, romanticism, and secrecy behind flora, creating an installation comprised of hidden meanings and botanical metaphors.
Moreover, during the Tudor period, plants were the first line of defence against illness. Herbs such as fennel, lavender and thyme were utilised by women in Tudor Gardens for their medicinal properties. This historical context reflects the femininity of flora, as with the help of herbal properties, Tudor women were able to carry out their duties as nurturers, herbalists, caregivers, and protectors.
Louise Cortambert ‘Le Language des Fleurs: First Dictionary Flower Language’ (1819)
Jan Brueghel the Younger ‘A satire of Tulip Mania’ (1640)
Historical resonance of the flower is also exemplified through the Tulip Mania phenomenon. This period in the Dutch Golden Age (1636-37) highlights the enduring and organic timelessness and potency of the flower. In the Netherlands, contract prices for bulbs of the recently introduced and fashionable tulip reached extraordinarily high levels, only to dramatically collapse a year later. The romanticism, symbolism and historical/material value of flowers and botany enriches my artistic practice, as I utilise and represent the rawest, most stripped down yet intricate and essential of materials.
Collaborative women's work: Priming our muslin hangings with acrylic primer, replicating domestic, stereotypically female tasks
Ecofeminism: The Domination of Women as Nature
Moreover, the white Lily reflects Lady Lilith, a fallen Goddess of Pandora and a demonic figure who refuses to subordinate herself to Adam. This mythological reference, alongside Shakespeare’s drowning of Ophelia in Hogsmill River and the biblical story of Eve’s banishment from the Garden of Eden, projects the condemnation and subordination of women to men, and the ‘hierarchal reality that conflates women and nature’(Deborah,2001,p1).
Through collaborative practice and emphasis on Biblical, Mythological and Shakespearean tales, Chalkie and I highlight female and male gender roles and stereotypes. Employing embroidery and needlework, we reflect on notions of the ‘domesticated female’ and societies perceptions of women as nurturers, caregivers, mothers, and child bearers. Prior to printing our botanical hanging, we primed our muslin to create more structure using acrylic primer, which we then hung out to dry. This process mimicked that of laundering, and other domestic tasks associated with females; further emphasising the patriarchal construct of women being centred around the home and family life.
Burney Relief, Queen of the Night, Lilith, 19-18C BCE
Stephan Lorent, 'Our Lily, Arum Lily' (1937)
It is interesting to note that Chalkie, wife, seamstress and mother of three, grew up in a period where male and female gender roles were more defined than at present. This is an interesting reflection when considering the affects and evolution of contemporary societies ‘Eurocentric capitalist patriarchal culture’. This defined culture, built on male domination over nature, and the domination of women as nature, is something ecofeminist art aims to address and resolve. As early as 1962, came an overwhelming number of lawsuits against the corporate world specifically from the kitchens of mothers and grandmothers. It was around this time, that the relevance of ecofeminism was discussed in various feminist art programs, including the institute for Social Ecology at Goddard College, Vermont. Through our collaborative zine and botanical hanging, Chalkie and I actively consider women’s history and wisdom alongside acknowledgement of nature’s inherent intelligence. By performing stereotypically female orientated tasks as part of our collaborative work, we highlight the significance of relationships of ‘cultural dominance’ (Plumwood, 1993, p21) and ethics expressed as sexism, speciesism, spirituality etc. Such emphasis aims to correct the imbalances of the hierarchal reality that combines women and the natural environment.
Georgia O'Keeffe: Mother Nature and Ecofeminism
Georgia O'Keeffe, 'Nature Forms- Gaspé', oil on canvas, 25.7cmx61cm, (1932)
‘Mother of American Modernism’ and influencing land artist James Turrell and feminist artist Judy Chicago, O’Keeffe was revolutionary in expressing her strong affiliation and inherent love for nature as a female artist. Her signature works, depicting the delicate and feminine, defiant, and sensual nature of flora and botany, are synonymous with ecological feminism that sees environmentalism, and the relationship between women and earth, as foundational to its analysis and practice (Wright, 2009, p11). Born in 1887 and one of the first female artists to be associated with such ecological ideologies, O’Keefe never claimed to be a feminist and rather baulked at the feminist interpretations and perceived sexual connotations throughout her career (Ellis-Petersen, 2016, p1). Yet her early efforts toward equality were notable. O’Keeffe joined the National Women’s Party in 1914 and lobbied Eleanor Roosevelt during the campaign for an equal rights amendment, stating no child should be barred from ‘any activity they choose’ on account of their sex.
Supporters of the Equal Rights Amendment marching in Washington, D.C. (1978)
Hardly weighing in on conversations about the meaning behind her obviously erotic, sensual floral oil paintings, O’Keeffe quietly adopted the feminist role. She was viewed by the American public as ‘the tempting Eve, comfortable within world of nature and harnessing its dangerous powers’. Unlike her husband and photographer Stieglitz’s verbosity, O’Keeffe continued to adopt well measured brevity of words; publicly presenting herself with self-discipline and reserve. It was through this calculated restraint, that O’Keeffe projected herself as empowered and intriguingly ambiguous to the art world. O’Keeffe’s public disapproval and disassociation with the phrase ‘woman artist’ only further emphasised her resilience and individuality (Chicago,2012,p73). Judy Chicago praises O’Keeffe’s work; issuing her one of the 39 individualized place settings in her seminal installation ‘The Dinner Party’ (1979). The undeniably potent confidence to O’Keeffe’s floral paintings, alongside her fierce individualism and devotion to nature, set the foundations for future drivers of ecological, ecofeminist art such as Ana Mendieta. (Ellis-Petersen, 2016, p1).
Georgia O’Keeffe ‘Music Pink and Blue II’ (1918)
Georgia O’Keeffe, ‘Black Iris III’ (1926)
Black Iris III’ (1926) one of O’Keeffe’s most masterful oil paintings, presents the inner workings of an iris in full bloom, its petals unable to be contained within the confines of the canvas edge. This monumental piece translates the delicate ephemerality of this exotic flower, which blooms only for a few weeks each spring. Mirroring the ephemerality and delicacy of life, especially in terms of female experience, O’Keeffe empowers women, giving her painting strength and monumentality not inherent in the flower itself (Wright, 2009, p17). By painting the dark impenetrable black purple and deep maroon at the iris’s centre using feathery brushstrokes to depict the flowers velvety appearance, O’Keeffe simulates sexual imagery to the viewer, reminiscent of female genitalia (EllisPetersen,2016,p1). Revolutionary and ground-breaking for her time, O’Keeffe uses the potency of botany to translate her feminine identity (MintzMessinger,2001,p58). This female empowerment whereby flora consumes nature, taking over its surroundings, acts as a metaphor for female rejection of male domination over nature and the restrictions and limitations that come with living in a capitalist patriarchal society.
A Patriarchal, Eurocentric Culture:
'Silent Spring' 1962
Alfred Eisenstaedt, 'Rachel Carson Talking with Children in the Woods by her Home', 1962
It is interesting to note that O’Keeffe’s refusal to address underlying motives was perhaps the only way to bring light to issues surrounding male domination over nature and women during the 1920/30s. Afterall, her innovative, ground-breaking floral works were among the first associated with ecofeminist concepts due to the restrictive, conservative, and old-fashioned times in which O’Keeffe lived. It was not for another 40years after O’Keeffe’s early works that ‘Silent Spring’, the 1962 publication that ‘laid the foundations for the environmental movement’, had come into play. This publication, a literary argument for an end to pesticides, was particularly unpopular with farmers and male agricultural workers who were comfortable continuing the misogynistic outlook which saw ‘patriarchal dominance over the land and its cultivation’ (McKie,2012,p1). This puts into perspective the strongly conformist times in which O’Keeffe lived. Engulfed in an entrenched patriarchal Eurocentric culture, O’Keeffe scratched the surface to the awareness and addressal of such concerns. A pioneer of her field, her potent paintings subsequently cannot be overlooked.
Georgia O'Keeffe, 'Red Canna', oil on canvas, 1924
Georgia O'Keeffe, 'Two Calla Lilies on Pink', oil on canvas, 1928
'Mother Nature', Flora and Female
Although O’Keeffe denied any symbolism, sexual or otherwise, her female connection with flora in her paintings is evidently one of passion and intuition. Her husband Steiglitz’s unapologetically sensual and erotic photographs of her body in intimate focus, exhibited as part of his Lake George 1922-23 series, encouraged the manifestation of ‘mother nature’; birthed through O’Keeffe’s magnified, softly tinted and exceedingly sensual oil paintings of flowers (Mintz Messinger,2001,p56). On top of this, the instinctual inclination to paint flowers which consumes the viewer, demonstrates the prevalent and unbreakable bonds between ecofeminist tendencies and the representations of flora in art.
O’Keeffe claimed that the size of her flowers painted was inspired by the skyscrapers being built all over her hometown in New York in the 1920’s. (Wright,2009,p14) Using flowers as a metaphor for her world expanding on the physical scale, demonstrates O’Keeffe trying to express this overwhelming, suffocating feeling. Dwarfed by towering skyscrapers, flowers allowed O’Keeffe to retreat for safety ‘in the focused heart of a blossom’ (Wright, 2009, p14). This comment on the exploitation and degradation of the natural world through painting the intensity and vibrancy of flora on a monumental scale, advocates and emphasises an ecofeminist outlook; highlighting the innate relationship between flora, the female and patriarchal dominance in society and nature.
Responding to Environment: Imposing Scales
O'Keeffe, Manhattan, oil on canvas, 214.3 x 122.4cm, 1932
O'Keeffe next to her oil paintings, Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, 1970
Although O’Keeffe denied any symbolism, sexual or otherwise, her female connection with flora in her paintings is evidently one of passion and intuition. Her husband Steiglitz’s unapologetically sensual and erotic photographs of her body in intimate focus, exhibited as part of his Lake George 1922-23 series, encouraged the manifestation of ‘mother nature’; birthed through O’Keeffe’s magnified, softly tinted and exceedingly sensual oil paintings of flowers (Mintz Messinger,2001,p56). On top of this, the instinctual inclination to paint flowers which consumes the viewer, demonstrates the prevalent and unbreakable bonds between ecofeminist tendencies and the representations of flora in art.
O’Keeffe claimed that the size of her flowers painted was inspired by the skyscrapers being built all over her hometown in New York in the 1920’s. (Wright,2009,p14) Using flowers as a metaphor for her world expanding on the physical scale, demonstrates O’Keeffe trying to express this overwhelming, suffocating feeling. Dwarfed by towering skyscrapers, flowers allowed O’Keeffe to retreat for safety ‘in the focused heart of a blossom’ (Wright, 2009, p14). This comment on the exploitation and degradation of the natural world through painting the intensity and vibrancy of flora on a monumental scale, advocates and emphasises an ecofeminist outlook; highlighting the innate relationship between flora, the female and patriarchal dominance in society and nature.
Fieldwork: Botanical Garden Centres & Yonic Symbolism
Emily Wenman, 'Photographic Series depicting Yonic Symbolism in Flora', 2021
Reflecting on the sexual connotations implicit in O’Keeffe’s work, I took a series of photographs as fieldwork at The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Focusing on intimate scale and sensuous experience, these photographs reference yonic symbolism and vulvar imagery evident in botany. I utilise these vibrant, sensual floral photographs as source material for my oil painting ‘Dreamland’(195cmx135cm).
Focusing on the depths of flowers receptacles and their anatomical structure, I translate the ambiguous sensuality of flora when studied and painted up close. Zooming into the calyx, the imposing scale dramatizes the work as I capture a Rhododendron lasciviously stretching out its petals, amongst personified stamen heads dancing in the wind. The amorphous, undulating, streamline shapes are dynamic and dreamlike, as I aim to portray a musical ‘floral symphony’ to my audience. I employ fluorescent, synthetic violets and viridian greens, referencing the wondrous, dazzling ‘structural colours’ of nature and bioluminescence in botanical material. This colour palette emphasises the fantastical, beguiling hyperintelligence of nature and ‘the sublime’, hence its title ‘Dreamland’.
Emily Wenman, 'Dreamland', oil on canvas, (up close stamen on right) 195cmx135cm, 2021
Mother Earth: Yoni and Mystical Spirituality
Lajja Gauri, sculpture, Madhya Pradesh, India, 6th Century
Contemporary blanket depicting Goddess Lajja Gauri Devi
Yoni, an abstract representation of the Hindu goddess Shakti, is conceptualised in Hinduism as ‘natures gateway of all births’, a divine feminine protective energy that has been interpreted to mean the womb and the female sexual organs of generation. An empowering symbol for feminine regenerative powers, the sacred Hindu Scripture, ‘The Brahma Sutras’ metaphorically calls the metaphysical concept of Brahman as the ‘Yoni (source) of the universe’(Krishnananda, 2008, p408). The above sculpture in Madhya Pradesh (India) depicts Lajja Gauri with a lotus head and a female body. This botanical reference demonstrates floras intrinsic connection to femininity with the Lotus representing fertility and the nature of cyclic existence through birth. Splayed showing yoni, this 6th Century sculpture symbolises Mother Earth in Shaktism and Shaivism traditions of Hinduism.
Similar to the mystical spirituality talked of in ecofeminist writings and evident in O’Keefe and Chicago’s work, Mendieta clearly identified with concepts of ‘Goddess’ and the female mystical energy. She emulated this through personal healing rituals, as well as acts of purification and transcendence. These private sculptural performances enacted in the landscape invoke spirit of renewal ‘inspired by nature and the power of the
feminine’(Baker,2016,p31). This obsessive need to reassert her ties with the Earth acts as the ‘reactivation of primal beliefs’ in an omnipresent female force. The inherent intertwinement of female and flora, both in a physical and metaphorical sense, enables Mendieta to materialise an ‘after-image of being encompassed within the womb’; a manifestation of her thirst for life (Baker,2016,p32).
Ana Mendieta, Ties with the Earth
Ana Mendieta ‘Untitled’, Silueta Series, (1976)
Ana Mendieta, ‘Image from Yagul’, (1973)
Growing up in foster care in the 1960’s, the painful separation from her parents informed much of her practice. Her artistic purpose to reconcile her personal sense of displacement and amend the link between herself and the country of her birth, explains this strongly expressed connection to spirituality, rituals, nature and the female (Baker,2016,p4). Reclaiming her Cuban roots and identity to become ‘at one with nature’, the raw vulnerability Mendieta conveys through floral and botanical symbolism helps distinguish and set her apart from male environmental artist contemporaries.
Mendieta compares ‘having been torn from a hut in her homeland during adolescence to the feeling of being cast from the womb’(Baker,2016,p5). This self-reflective and feminine perspective accentuated through Medina’s use of flora, demonstrates the strong influence she had over future female ecofeminists. Her instinctual desire to re-establish the family bonds that unite her to the universe further intertwines the female with the therapeutic and self-soothing. A pioneer of Earth art, Mendieta successfully and effectively taps into Mother Earth energy and ritualism to create a shift in environmental perspective; encouraging the active involvement of female artists to the environment.
Emily Wenman, Clitoral Gland and Sycamore Seed Casting Process, perspex and wax 2021
Lost Wax Casting: Bodily and Botanical
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Reflecting on Mendieta’s Earth Art, I emphasise and demonstrate the active involvement and interconnection of women to the environment through working directly with earth’s raw, organic materials.
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Experimenting with different disciplines such as wax casting and three-dimensional printing, I depict and define the feminine forms, sensual silhouettes and yonic symbolism implicitly and explicitly found in nature.
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I cast sycamore seeds using the lost wax process, a method of metal casting in which a molten metal is poured into a paraffin wax mould that is then melted and drained away. This process was therapeutic and thought-provoking, requiring stereotypically feminine attributes of precision, delicacy of touch and patience.
Emily Wenman, Lost wax casting method and process, 2021
Emily Wenman, Lost wax casting method and process, 2021
Through the lost-wax casting method, I was most effectively able to single out and represent the wing-like motif of the sycamore seed which I replicate and reproduce in later works. Its sensual, soft, convex silhouette is synonymous with the wing-like structure of the clitoral gland. This gland, complex in anatomical structure, mimics the complexity of nature, connecting women to the earth.
Reflecting on this relationship between the bodily and botanical, I decided to produce a three-dimensional Perspex print of the clitoral gland in gold. Creating this motif in gold and as an ornamental feature elevates and glorifies Mother Nature, presenting her much like the Yoni Hindu Goddess Lajja Gauri and divine energy Shakti, transcendent and at one with nature. This casting process ties in with ecofeminist ideals as I highlight the historical discourse that both women and nature must be respected rather than oppressed. I also consider ‘Eccentric Abstraction’ as I use specific materials depicting rounded feminine forms to create sensuous experience identified by the senses-visual, tactile and visceral (Lippard,1971,p.111).
Emily Wenman, Three-Dimensional Printing of Clitoral Gland, gold perspex, 2021
Helen Frankenthaler: Colour Field Painting
Research: Aleatoric Painting Processes
Having experimented with various processes and means of production, I wish to incorporate such ecofeminist motifs and symbolism as previously discussed within my anthropomorphic, amorphous paintings. Through the practical experimentation of painting, I aim to perfect and develop a more in-depth painterly language and understanding.
Culminating in a more liberated, impressionistic painting practice at the end of Unit 2, I continue to further explore this instinctive, visceral way of working throughout Unit 3. Playing a pivotal role in the transition from Abstract Expressionism to Colour Field Painting, Frankenthaler expanded the possibilities of abstraction through her invention of the soak-stain technique, a freeing and at times aleatoric method I too utilise in my artistic practice. Her oil painting, ‘Mountains and Sea’ (1952), is comprised of thinned paint poured directly onto raw, un-primed canvas, referencing figuration and landscape in amongst floating fields of translucent colour. Working from all sides of the canvas laid on the studio floor, Frankenthaler demonstrates how ‘a line is a line, but (also) is a colour… it does this here but that there’. Frankenthaler is wholeheartedly involved and existent within her artistic process and the physical act of painting.
Helen Frankenthaler in her studio. New York City. USA. 1957
This liberated perspective on visual components such as line, colour, shape, and space has made me think more about the beauty and ‘trickery’ surrounding the very idea of painting. Each artistic component functions as one thing within itself, and yet does something else, in relation to everything that is going on within the canvas walls. There is an infinite extended space within a finite surface area of flat canvas. Colour field painting has enlightened my understanding on painting’s constructs and methodologies. My work has become more dynamic, visceral, and instinctual as a result. My practice has shifted to take on a more performative role, whereby I intentionally as well as subconsciously paint my physicality and movements onto and as part of the canvas.
Helen Frankenthaler, Mountains and Sea, 1952, oil and charcoal on unsized, unprimed canvas, (219.4cm x 297.8cm)
Emily Wenman, preparatory work inspired by Frankenthaler: Compositional biro drawing of how I envisage painting amorphous, cellular botanical structures onto large scale unprimed canvas using oil bars to reflect the visceral, instinctive and sensuous qualities to the organic.
Eccentric Abstraction and Abstract Expressionism
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Reflecting on the biomorphic shapes evident in Abstract Expressionist Frankenthaler’s works, I have developed my botanical, floral paintings to appear less representational and more amorphous and nebulous. Alluding to botanical impressions rather than directly depicting botanical material, the material itself (and its repercussions) take control over the subject matter translated. This more liberated, instinctive process enables sensuality and tactility to take precedence.
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Much like a large oil pastel, working with oil bars enabled me to create looser gestural strokes and renders on a larger, more freeing scale. Using oil bars to create characteristically feminine, ‘long slow voluptuous but also mechanical curves’ creates a visceral, indirectly erotic rendering of the Rehmannia flower. This process is not dissimilar to ‘Eccentric Abstraction’, whereby materiality is used to evoke meaning and feminine sensuous experience.
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Emulating soft, cyclical, biomorphic forms, these concave-convex smooth mounds are indirectly erotic. The completed and continuous curves of the Rehmannia flower, in amongst paper tears stimulates a near-visceral, tactile identification and relationship with form, provoking that part of the brain which, when activated by the eye, 'experiences the strongest physical sensations' (Lippard, 1971, p.102).
Painting Viscera:
Emily Wenman 'Rehmannia', oil bars on paper, 130cmx165cm, 2021
Emily Wenman 'Rehmannia', oil bars on paper, 130cmx165cm, 2021
Emily Wenman, video demonstrating the raw, visceral process emphasising materiality: tearing paper/rendering with oil bars
Process As Research:
Perfecting and Developing Painterly Language
Emily Wenman, 'Blumen', 120cmx160cm, employing soak-stain, removal and layering with rag and panels of paint, 2021
Employing Abstract Expressionist, Action Painting techniques of placing painting on floor and at various rotations, allowing the free-flowing fluid materiality of paint to take precedence.
With materiality in mind, I intend to emulate paints visceral, sensuous qualities through specific methodology. To perfect and develop my painterly understanding, I have produced a series of ecofeminist, botanical works employing an Abstract Expressionist methodology and approach. I explore Colour Field techniques to create these visceral, imposing, and immersive works whereby paint and its material properties take precedence. Employing aleatoric and instinctive paint processes (such as paint drips, soak-staining, layering, and removing washes of paint using rags), my painting process is exciting, energised, and dynamic as I embrace a sense of chance. Much like the works of Frankenthler, Ian Mckeever and Jules Olitzki, my oil and acrylic paintings hover between abstraction and a residual sense of figuration. By incorporating fervent gestural marks of organic impressions in amongst atmospheric blankets of paint, I place emphasis on the nebulous, obscure, and mysterious traits innate to nature and the feminine. Encompassing with O’Keeffe’s signature works, these paintings portray flowers as delicate and feminine, yet defiant and imposing.
Sections from various paintings, experimenting and developing painterly language using acrylic grounds underneath oil drips/soak-staining and other aleatoric processes
Synthetic vs Natural: Compositional Research
Reflecting on the connection between the exploitation and degradation of the natural world and the subordination and oppression of women I decided to photograph botanical material in amongst the manmade, industrial environment. Focusing on specific sections of my photographic source material, I intertwine flora with industrial colour and structure, reflecting the 'devastating beauty' of our natural landscape at the hand and destruction of man.
This crafted pictorial construction is visually stimulating as I merge sensual, soft, feminine flora with stoic, linear architectural lines, and geometric shapes. The incorporation of fluorescent UV lighting as part of the architectural foreground emphasises the ‘toxicity of colour’ and environmental industrial distress I allude to. This iridescence also emulates hyper-pigmented colour naturally found in bioluminescent botanical material and the dazzling ‘structural colours’ of nature. Unlike previous works, I place botany in an artificial environment, no longer immersed in the untouched, unaltered wilderness, flora takes on a synthetic appearance; it becomes domesticated, commercialized, and materialised.
Sectioning photographic source material as compositional research/ experimenting with pictorial construction
Response: 'Everything All of the Time'
Emily Wenman, 'Everything All of the Time', oil and acrylic on canvas, 122cmx127cm, 2021
Photographic Research: The Natural and Synthetic
Domestic Flora, Potted Plants
Photographic research depicting flora intertwined with the domestic, synthetic, artificial and industrial
Reflecting on ‘Everything All of the Time’ and the symbiotic compositional relationship between the architectural and natural, I have taken a further series of photographs intertwining the domestic and industrial with the natural and unspoilt. Capturing potted plants in amongst an architectural landscape of domestic components, such as a windowsill and spray bottle, I reflect on this shift towards a more domesticated lifestyle due to the coronavirus pandemic. I consider our current, more constrained experience of flora as we appreciate flowers and plants more so within our own homes as opposed to in an expansive setting. Yet this imagery adopts ominous undertones as I combine beauty with destructiveness and industrialisation. The fluorescent pigments utilised (referencing ‘structural colour’ and bioluminescence in nature) also allude to the ‘vibrant glow’ and energised nature of cut flowers before they wilt and fade. This vitality and fleeting feminine energy reflects connections between oppressed women, misogyny and the destruction of the natural world.
Emily Wenman, 'Florere', work in progress depicting toxicity and contamination of industrial emissions, oil and acrylic on canvas, 120cmx160cm, 2021
My latest painting ‘Florere’, a seemingly luscious, sensual botanical paradise, underhandedly portrays flora in an artificial male dominated world. A painted manipulated landscape of highly cultured flowers and genetically modified plants; I depict contemporary cultures obsession with preserving youth and beauty. Incorporating toxic-coloured drips of acrylics and oils, this painted imagery is reminiscent of oil spillages, industrial emissions, and pollution. Expressing ecological, ecofeminist concerns, I paint an anthropomorphic botanical landscape of a consuming and immersive scale. This scale emphasises the overwhelming and catastrophic effects of a patriarchal, Eurocentric culture and of male dominance over nature and female. Building a malleable sense of space and form, ‘Florere’ explores the turbulent ground between the botanical and the bodily, between beauty and toxicity, between the natural and artificial.
Emily Wenman, 'Florere', oil and acrylic on canvas, 120cmx160cm, 2021
Emily Wenman, 'Florere', oil and acrylic on canvas, 120cmx160cm, 2021