On view: The monsters that make us

This painting is currently on show at Tremenheere Gallery at Tremenheere Sculpture Gardens near Penzance. The Newlyn Society of Artists Autumn show is a beautiful eclectic collection of contemporary art and is open every day (except mondays) until the end of October. This painting explores transformation and the grotesque in relation to women and their life stories. It uses grotesqueries within the patterns around the main figure and are also gargoyles within the formal arched composition with grotesque patterns around them. The grotesque as an art design style was based on the Roman art found in ‘caves’ under Pompeii in the late 16^th century (hence grotesque from ‘grotto’ or cave). Over time the term ‘grotesque’ became a description for ugly, monstrous or surprising juxtapositions, that were often comical and satirical. In writing about carnivals and the chaotic play of the masses mocking hierarchy and power, Bahktin developed the idea of what we now call the ‘carnivalesque’. Some of his ideas were based around the grotesque body, which he described as a potential for change and transformation. Writing of the female body which is monstrous in its ability to be ‘more than one’ (to reproduce, to have another body within it):‘The grotesque body is a body in the act of becoming. It is never finished, never completed. It is continually built, created and builds and creates another body’ Bahkitin from ‘Rabelais and his world’ Indeed historically the woman’s body was considered monstrous. It was not the ‘norm’ (a male body) and with its reproductive capabilities and mysterious interior architecture little understood. We may laugh now at this evident ignorance but it is interesting to think about how arcane belief in women’s monstrous body (and how it might make the mind defective) structured cultural and philosophical thinking for hundreds of years. Wondering how this perception of women may still be affecting our attitudes today, the painting really asks: ’ Are women still considered monstrous, and if so who made the monster?’ Read More…