| KAREN
WILCOX
While Robinson’s work primarily mines
the personal psyche, the paintings and sculptures of Karen Wilcox
forge a bridge to the collective psyche. Floating in some cosmic,
primordial soup, these distorted figures are recognizably, disturbingly
human. The figure in Morphos seems to be in transformation
– breaking her cocoon, her body twists out. We recognize
the not-always-beautiful moment of creation, whether of the
universe or the metamorphosis of an individual consciousness.
The
Serpent Deity sculptures refer to ancient stories in which
the human form merged with animals – sphinxes, mermaids
and satyrs, for instance. Elongated and coiling, Wilcox’s
serpents each sprout buttocks, breasts and a human head. Here
are the snake goddesses of Neolithic and Bronze Age Old Europe
that Marija Gimbutas described in The Language of the Goddess.
They may also personify an individual’s ability to transform
herself, to shed her old skin like the molting of snakes.
James Hillman contends that the images of the psyche are “structured
by archetypes” (the Jungian idea that we all share common
psychic images) and that the interrelations between ancient
myths and soul “are the structural principles of psychic
life” (p. 23). Wilcox, well-read in world mythology, skillfully
weaves this interrelationship with her contorted yet generic
figures – in their baldness and bland expressions they
resist specificity. Titles often refer to mythic characters:
Frigg and Freyja, for instance, are two different aspects
of one Nordic goddess. In Cerulean Dream we glimpse
the triple goddess in three differently-hued figures as they
encircle each other. Encounter reminds us of the Narcissus myth,
the Greek god who falls in love with his own reflection in the
water.
Encounter can also be read as the everyday, external
self examining the internal. The bottom figure is the psyche,
tentatively emerging from the water’s depths, a well-known
symbol of the unconscious. The red figure at top has persuaded
the green figure of the psyche to surface for an encounter.
It’s a tender image of the artist wooing the psyche, and
the psyche responding. Wilcox engages the external and internal
in her work: “I use the contorted body as a metaphor for
the human conflict between external reality and personal, internal
beliefs” (artist’s statement).
Wilcox acknowledges that she’s presenting difficult imagery,
that most people want to see “pretty and happy things.”
Like Louis Bourgeois’ sculptures, especially Destruction
of the Father and her performance garment as Artemis, the
exaggerated breasts and buttocks of these creatures both attract
and repel. And Bourgeois and Wilcox, in turn, can reference
the mythological goddess, Artemis of Ephesus, whose
classic Roman interpretation presents the same overabundance,
breast-wise. The images of the psyche are never easy and pat,
whether they surface in our personal dreams and visions or in
our collective myths.
NANCY
ROBINSON | MICHAL SAGAR | RINA
YOON
Figure
& Psyche Homepage
|
Front:
Serpent Deity 1, version 3, 2002, bronze
Back: Encounter, 2001, oilstick
Cerulean Dream, 2002, oilstick
Left: Locus, 2001, oil
Right back: Morphos, 2001, oil
Right front: Serpent Deity1, version 2,
2002, bronze/stone
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