​The Insignificant Triptych

Insignificant:II) No Body's Hostess

mosaic interior with a table and chairs and drawings on the wall of hangars
"Insignificant: II) No Body's Hostess" glass mosaic on wood (and cutting board) with text, drawings, reproductions of lithograph collages, hangars, jigsaw blades, copper wire and cupcakes 12.5" long x 10" high x 5.5" deep ©Diana Maria Rossi 2017-2019
 "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.
picture of text:
"Insignificant: II) No Body's Hostess" (detail) ©Diana Maria Rossi 2017
       "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.                                                                        -                                                                    
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"Insignificant: II) No Body's Hostess" (detail) ©Diana Maria Rossi 2017
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"Insignificant : II) No Body's Hostess" (detail) ©Diana Maria Rossi 2017
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"Insignificant : II) No Body's Hostess" (detail) ©Diana Maria Rossi 2017
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"Insignificant: II) No Body's Hostess" (detail) ©Diana Maria Rossi 2017
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.
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"Insignificant: II) No Body's Hostess" [detail] ©Diana Maria Rossi 2017
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
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"Insignificant : II) No Body's Hostess" [detail] ©Diana Maria Rossi 2017
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"Insignificant : II) No Body's Hostess" [detail] ©Diana Maria Rossi 2017
"Whatever you do may seem insignificant, but it is most important that you do it." Attributed to Mahatma Gandhi
[Text circles the lampshade.]
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"Insignificant : II) No Body's Hostess" [detail] ©Diana Maria Rossi 2017
"Dear World
I don't need
​your
permission
to exist on
my own terms"
[Text  in the letter on the table.]
Picture
"Insignificant : II) No Body's Hostess" [detail] ©Diana Maria Rossi 2017
Picture of mosaic chair with wee cupcake in the middle of the back!
"Insignificant: II) No Body's Hostess" [detail] ©Diana Maria Rossi 2017
Picture of top of chair
"Insignificant: II) No Body's Hostess" [detail] ©Diana Maria Rossi 2017
No Body's But Mine....[repeated text on chair]
Picture of chair
"Insignificant: II) No Body's Hostess" [detail] ©Diana Maria Rossi 2017
Picture of top of chair with writing
"Insignificant: II) No Body's Hostess" [detail] ©Diana Maria Rossi 2017
No Body's Hostess...[repeated text on chair]
view from the top of the copper wire roof looking down on the table and floor
"Insignificant: II) No Body's Hostess" [detail] ©Diana Maria Rossi 2017
View from the top
(copper wire roof)
picture of bottom --- three repeat collages of a woman's face in a landscape and bodies
"Insignificant: II) No Body's Hostess" [detail] ©Diana Maria Rossi 2017
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.