Great Mothers cycle

2012

50 × 50 × 200 cm

Canvas work, stuffed with jute and sewn with cords.

Ready-made. Mixed media.

Lingam is a votive monument, the Totem of Fertility. The Great Fertiliser of Earth and Sky. On two faces of the body of the Lingam, female genitalia are depicted; on the two opposite sides, these transform into the great Seed, which, splitting open in the earth, performs its rite of Fertilisation.

The canvas covering the structure of the obelisk becomes skin, wrapping and joining the generative organs. To make their union indissoluble, the canvas-skin is bound with cords and knots; sewn and re-sewn, it becomes a symbol of the complexity and indissolubility of the divine Coniunctio. On the base of the Lingam, as well as at its extremity, breasts of every shape and size are joined together, like shells attached to a rock. They represent the Great Mother and provide nourishment to that which has been generated. They are the moist element, the liquid, the sea. Upon them, like small objects, remnants of toys and shells abandoned by the waves on the shore, we find the testimonies of infinite human stories, of a humanity that continually generates itself in the unceasing cycle of birth and death.

Lingam originated from a request made to 80 artists to interpret an Obelisk for an exhibition. I saw the obelisk as a votive monument, the Totem of Fertility. The Great Phallus of the Earth, the Great Fertiliser of space and sky. On the four faces of the base, the great Generative Vulvas. The Obelisk-Lingam, penetrating space, generates centrifugal force. Air.

The fissures-vulvas, on the other hand, with their centripetal force, invite you to be penetrated. Within, into the viscera, into the secret of Creation, at the centre of Revelation. Fire.

On the two opposite sides, the female genital organ transforms into the great Seed which, splitting open in the earth, performs its rite of Fertility. Earth.

The canvas covering the structure of the obelisk becomes skin, wrapping and joining the “generative Phallus” and the “generative Vulva”.

To make their union indissoluble, the canvas-skin is bound with cords and knots. It is torn, sewn, bound, incised. Formless, dirty, full of debris and corrugations.

It is sewn and re-sewn, like great scars, a symbol of the struggle and the pain involved in the divine “Coniunctio”. Also in Archetipi in scatola: “mystical couple”, “androgyne”, “Siamese”, the union of the feminine and the masculine, of man and woman, always bears the traces and marks of this struggle. The sublime aspiration towards fusion often becomes mutual devouring (see “Coppia”).

On the base of the Lingam, as on the glans, breasts of every shape and size are joined together, like shells attached to a rock. They are the Great Mother. They provide nourishment to that which has been generated. They are the moist element, the liquid, the sea. Water.

Objects and shells emerge from the breasts; abandoned by the sea on a beach, they have been selected and collected. I have been working with the element of the nourishing breast for many years. In many works, I have modelled it in plaster, enclosing it within repeated square modules. I have brought them together in order to facilitate dynamic transmission as an absolute creative act.

In others, the nourishing breast is made in canvas and composed according to the same principle as the plaster works. These breasts are the ex-votos I saw during my childhood. Overlaid one upon another, they adhered like encrustations to the walls of Rome. Here, women prayed to the Madonna-Great Mother, pleading for a grace for their children, the Generated. Many of these breast-shaped forms are made through sewing, embroidery or crochet. (Magna Madre – Vierge)

The feminine work is brought into prominence, its grace and creativity. It gives the work the value of warmth, of “Familia”, of love and devotion. Fire.

Because of this “affection”, Lingam, stuffed with straw and cotton, is soft and can be embraced; it is Feminine, tempering its Masculine opposite through its welcoming embrace.