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Artworks
Heather Lee Birdsong
They Wore Their Mothers’ Bones Like Scarlet Letters, 2009intaglio line etching, after The Three Fates (Die Parzen) by Theodor Baierl7.75 x 5.5 inches (paper size)Edition 1 of 3 (1st state)This print references two works by white male creators: the anachronistic painter Theodor Baierl (who created his Fates painting, with the central figure's strikingly confrontational glare, in the immediate years...This print references two works by white male creators: the anachronistic painter Theodor Baierl (who created his Fates painting, with the central figure's strikingly confrontational glare, in the immediate years following the end of World War I) and Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter (originally published in 1850; like many American children, I first read it in high school). As a white woman and student of (predominantly European) art history, I am naturally interested in how white women have been depicted throughout that history and how that continues to manifest in contemporary culture. In my work, I've turned the gazes of the women inward toward each other rather than the viewer: they self-consciously and collectively carry the weight of a macabre history. It is inevitable, but there is still some choice involved in where and how one bears the metaphorical bones of the past. Is Clotho, the cutter of the thread of life, resigned to it, or preparing to cut herself loose? I give different answers on different days.1of 5
