The Insignificant Triptych |
Insignificant:II) No Body's Hostess
"No Body's Hostess" took shape in response to a lawmaker from Oklahoma, Justin Humphrey, who said that he thought that when a woman became pregnant then her body was a "host". I thought that that was a very strange and a supremely alienating concept for any woman to have to hear about her own body and so the theme for this piece was born.
"Nevertheless her mind must have been strained and her vitality lowered by her need to oppose this."
[Text running length of top of piece] [Text by Virginia Woolf from p. 228 of Tillie Olsen's Silences. -
[Text running length of top of piece] [Text by Virginia Woolf from p. 228 of Tillie Olsen's Silences. -
These are regular-sized charcoal pencil and china marker drawings that I made in the 1980's. They are approximately 24"x 16" in their original size and I reduced them to use in this piece.
Dear World,
This body is not a Host and I am not a Hostess.
I will decide if or when I become a Mother.
And I will fight to my dying day so that every
woman on this living planet has this choice.
This is the basis of female freedom.
Anything less is to be enslaved.
Anonymous Who Was a Woman
This body is not a Host and I am not a Hostess.
I will decide if or when I become a Mother.
And I will fight to my dying day so that every
woman on this living planet has this choice.
This is the basis of female freedom.
Anything less is to be enslaved.
Anonymous Who Was a Woman
"Whatever you do may seem insignificant, but it is most important that you do it." Attributed to Mahatma Gandhi
[Text circles the lampshade.] |
"Dear World
I don't need your permission to exist on my own terms" [Text in the letter on the table.] |
No Body's But Mine....[repeated text on chair]
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No Body's Hostess...[repeated text on chair]
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View from the top
(copper wire roof)
(copper wire roof)
The underside of this piece is covered with partial reprints of a photo lithograph with collage that I made in the 1980's. This collage was part of a series called "Right to Life", which was inspired by the poem of the same name by Marge Piercy.