Goddesses, Goddesses, Witches, Virgins... They continue to play an important role in shaping the world's understanding of the world. How do different cultural traditions view female power? How is female authority perceived?
The Paper has learned that the British Museum will launch "Female Power: From Sacred to Demonic" from May 19, the exhibition focuses on the gods and demons that human beings have revered and revered for more than 5,000 years, and examines the far-reaching influence of the female spirit in global religions and beliefs from a cross-cultural perspective.
This article is the curator's interpretation of some of the works in the exhibition, where ancient sculptures, paintings and sacrificial objects from around the world are exhibited for the first time together with modern and contemporary art works to illustrate the diversity of female power.
The worship of Pellet, the goddess of Hawaiian volcanoes, reveals how her creativity and destructiveness are revered; the Buddhist bodhisattva's transcendent compassion reveals the importance of gender fluidity in spiritual traditions. The terrible Hindu goddess Kari holds a head and a bloody sword in her artistic image, and she is also revered as the holy mother of Hinduism, liberating the world from fear and ignorance.
When these ancient gods merge with contemporary culture, what does female power mean? The exhibition brings together artworks from five continents from ancient times to the present day, highlighting the multiple faces of female power and its influence on the times.
nature
The desire to understand the origin of life, the place of man in the universe, the power of the natural world... The unknown of the world is at the heart of human faith, and thus constructs a vast variety of creation stories.
Contemporary artist Judy Chicago 's (b. 1939) work The Creation reimagines the biblical story of creation from a feminist perspective. In the artist's words, she challenges the myth that God first created Adam, but instead conceives the birth of primitive life in the pose of a goddess producing. The goddess in the painting holds the sun in her right hand, and the milk gushes out like a volcanic eruption. Created in the 1980s, the work is part of the "Birth Project" series, in which artists collaborate with women needleworkers across the United States to promote the depiction of birth in Western art through traditional female skills.
Judy Chicago, Genesis ("Birth Plan" series), 1985
God is considered the embodiment of natural phenomena and even has the power to control life and death. Pele is Hawaii's volcano goddess and is also seen as a force for destruction and creation. Artist Tom Pico (b. 1950) made her from a multi-shaped ohi'a wood native to Hawaii, a natural red color that expresses the goddess's fiery nature, with her fiery red hair flowing to the ground like volcanic lava. As one of the first plants to grow on lava, multi-type core wood has the meaning of regeneration cycle. Picot leaves a natural rough grain of wood on one side of the sculpture and a highly polished other side, alluding to the dual characteristics of the goddess of the volcano.
Tom Pico, statue of the goddess made of multi-type iron heartwood, 2001
Passion and desire
In addition to the creation faith, the exhibition explores the relationship of passion and desire to the female body. Ishtar, the Mesopotamian goddess known as the "Queen of the Night", was the ancient Babylonian goddess of war and love. In a clay relief from B.C., she stands naked on the back of a lion, holding in her hand the scepter of justice and majesty, and the crown on her head symbolizing divinity and kingship. Ishtar confidently confronts the viewer, but she is an unstable force that seems to bring chaos or stability to her home country, only at her thought.
Ancient Babylonian goddess Ishtar, southern Iraq, 19th to 18th centuries BC
In the exhibition, ancient artifacts such as the "Queen of the Night" Ishtar will be exhibited alongside contemporary art, including a sculpture depicting the demon Lilith by Kiki Smith. In Jewish folklore, Lilith is believed to be Adam's first wife, and God created her with Adam at the same time with the same clay, and they were equal, but she left the Garden of Eden because she was dissatisfied with Adam, allied herself with Satan, and became a female demon who seduced humans and strangled babies. For a long time, people have been worried about Lilith's provocation. Smith shaped Lilith's figure with the body proportions of a real woman and made her sharp eyes out of blue glass to convey a lifelike, intimidating appearance. Lilith transcended gravity and attached her limbs to the wall. Apparently, Smith arranged the character in a position where it was impossible to fully see her naked body to protect against voyeurism.
Kiki Smith, Lilith, 1994
The power of evil
Female demons, witches, and monsters are scattered throughout myths and folklore around the world. Like Lilith, these figures often go against the historical image of female idealized conformity. Their independence, self-control, and even the expression of their emotions, ambitions, and pursuit of interests make them an image of empowerment. For mexicans or Aztecs, the goddess Cihuateteo existed in such multiple meanings, Chihuateteo was the soul of a woman who died in childbirth, and the Aztecs believed that a woman's death in childbirth was as glorious as a man's death in battle; at the same time, people were terrified of them and thought that they would come into the world at certain times of the year to steal the children of the living and go crazy with those who saw them. The statue depicts a terrifying image of a Chivat Teo goddess with bulging eyes that look a little wild, but earrings and bare chest highlight the beauty of her past. There is also a symbol on her head that indicates the day she will descend to mortality.
Chivat te o stone carving, Mexico, circa 1400-1521
Justice and defense
In some religions, the battlefield has long been considered the domain of the divine female warriors, who are called to conquer hostile forces through superior wisdom and strategy. The ancient Egyptian goddess Sekhmet is depicted as a lioness to show her ferocity and destructive power, and Sekhmet is even known as the goddess of killing, but when suppressing anger, she can also bring healing and peace. In the upcoming statue, the goddess holds a papyrus staff, a symbol of northern Egypt, and is inscribed with a hieroglyph symbolizing "life."
Sekhmet is also a sun god, with a sun disk on her head, considered the daughter of the sun god Ra, often associated with hot deserts, and has the meaning of blessing physical health and military victory. It is estimated that more than seven hundred statues of Sehmet once stood in the mausoleum of Amenhotep III on the west bank of the Nile alone. One of them is on display this time, but the sun plate on the top of the statue has been lost.
Sehmet granite statue, Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt
The Hindu goddess Kali is both awe-inspiring and beloved, and her terrible appearance is associated with the creativity and destructive power of time. Kolkata artist Kaushik Ghosh, who has created sculptures of Hindu deities for temples or festival parades, customised the Hindu goddess for the exhibition.
The goddess wears a necklace with a human head symbolizing her destructive power, while her fearlessness and generosity are expressed through her gestures. As the Holy Mother of Hinduism, Kari's trampling on the land stemmed from being too angry to control herself when she destroyed demons, so her partner, Shiva, lay at the feet of Kari and let him trample on it to vent his hatred in order to alleviate the suffering of sentient beings. In the Bengal region, the goddess Kali is worshipped as a demon slayer and a powerful protector.
Kaushik Ghosh, Goddess Gali, 2022
Compassion
In different traditions, compassion is seen as an intrinsic quality. The Buddhist Guanyin Bodhisattva is the embodiment of compassion, an isolated enlightened person who is believed to appear in times of crisis to save sentient beings. In the exhibition, an 18th-century Senju Kannon, her fan-shaped thousand hands symbolizes access to everyone in need. Although Guanyin has been presented as a woman since the Song Dynasty, Guanyin transcends gender and changes in a kaleidoscopic way to bless and save everyone who calls out to her.
Thousand Hands Guanyin Porcelain Statue, China, 18th century
But in Tibetan Buddhism, Guanyin is often depicted as a male figure. This reflects the connection between compassion (one of the two main qualities in the Buddhist faith) and the spiritual presence of men, with the emergence of women representing wisdom (the second primary quality). Therefore, in Tibetan Buddhism, Guanyin is usually worshipped along with Tara, one of the most important spiritual beings in Tibetan Buddhism. Tara means "savior," and through Tara meditation one can quickly enter nirvana from the world of suffering. This Tibetan thangka shows twenty-one different forms of Tara. The green Tara in the middle is the Lord of all Taras, totaling all the merits of the remaining twenty incarnations. She touched the ground with one foot, and seemed ready to purify all sentient beings at any time. The Tara around her changed from a peaceful appearance in the upper part to a resentful look at the bottom, as if to help the crowd overcome fear and negative emotions.
Twenty-one Tara Thangka, nineteenth century
In cultural and spiritual traditions around the world, reflections on the power of women provide a rich and fascinating source of inspiration for art, as well as a glimpse into what diverse cultures mean today.
Note: The authors of this article, Belinda Crerar and Lucy Dahlsen, respectively, are the exhibition's lead curator and project curator; the exhibition "Female Power: From The Divine to the Devil" will take place at the British Museum from May 19 to September 25.