Ede No. 2 from the "Slew" Series from the collection of South Carolina Arts Commission

Ede No. 2 from the "Slew" Series, 1981

mixed media sculpture

52 x 110 x 14 in

Ede No. 2 was planned as a way of exploring my feelings about childbearing. This work is an “exposed” one because it is not a locked box as some previous works in this series were. Each Iroquois – European baby carrier represents a ten year period of my life and is arranged chronically. The bodies of the carriers are corsets with darts, bones, and feminine clothing construction methods as a prime concern. Due to the burden that I increasingly felt about this subject, the back support boards were designed to be extremely heavy and possibly useless for this purpose. They are wooden monuments fatalistically mounted with portraits of myself with those persons who were the most influential in the development of my childbearing self-image. I see the bars that connect the parts as protectors for the head (mental barriers or protective devices). They are also that part which is carried most obviously into the next image getting larger and stronger each time.

My imagining at 12 years old what childbearing would be like is represented by the cream carrier. It is the fantasy image of a container that is useable and able to carry children but too ornate, delicate, and under-developed to function well in that role. The second image is one of growth and strength; it also has a more fully developed interior and exterior anatomical structure. The fabric used in this section is called “Paradise” with its reference to the Garden of Eden and medieval marriage concepts. It its coloration, however, there are black undertones. At age 22, I was newly married and this image is in keeping with my childbearing image for that period. The third carrier is made of beaten, black material – a symbol for me of grief, remorse, and guilt, which at 32, after the loss of several children, had become an accurate self image. This carrier has been destroyed for its function, though it appears fully anatomically developed.

In each part, I used materials owned by others in my family to add to the idea that the image is built on a collection of values. The feminine images are constructions of our fantasies about this female role that led to the final personal destructiveness of the third image. There is a research paper on self-esteem and female image connected to grief reactions in the loss of children through spontaneous abortion that is part of this work. Though these three images are viable images of my experiences to 32, other parts will be added to Ede No. 2 in 10 year increments as the project was originally planned.

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