‘Into Being’ and ‘You Are A Comet!’ was installed at VanDusen Botanical Garden for the group show ‘The Signature Of All Things’, with Open Book Art Collective for the month of October in 2016.
For thousands of years the ‘feminine’ has been deeply associated with the earth, nature, body and flesh. In fact, writer Sue Monk Kidd points out that, the word mother comes from the Latin word mater, which means matter. The Western world’s continual fear of the feminine (mother, matter) is deeply linked to centuries of denial of the body and the earth, as well as the separation of spirit and nature. Alma lives bound between these false dichotomies, however, in several, ‘thin’ sacred spaces, such as the cave of mosses and the binding closet, she experiences freedom to connect with her instinctual, “ecological self,” (Joanna Macy) and step into her being. This piece was created by eco and ice dying silk.
“These two locations- the binding closet and the carriage house study- became for Alma twin points of privacy and revelation. One room was for the body; one was for the mind… both rooms belonged to Alma Whittaker alone, and in both rooms, she came into being.” p. 114, The Signature Of All Things
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