Action, source and material form the basis of process
Madeleine Fenwick’s latest body of work is an erotic arsenal of feminist humour.
Fenwick has long been interested in the big questions, those surrounding myth, archetypes, human drives and human purpose. We are drawn into Fenwick’s fantastical anthropology museum, the scattered objects erotic and mischievous: many of them are weapons, and their shapes allude to female sexuality; vulvas, mouths, breasts.
Throughout the work, the drives of Eros and Thanatos are present. The dedication to Artemis sets the tone and draws us into the world of archetypal forces that the Greek gods inhabit. Fenwick’s approach to the primordial forces of desire and destruction is satirical (or Satyrical?). The artist observes and comments wryly, creating irreverent tools for humour and empowerment when faced with bleak realities.
The Eros/Thanathos drives anchor the body of work, giving it a political undercurrent. The tension they create reminds the viewer that in the midsts of playful discussions of female identity there remains violence, inequality, and danger for women in this age. The undercurrent of violence is never far, sometimes in the form of awkward fingers crawling out of a mouth and sometimes as a silent promise in the form of weaponry.
Fenwick’s series is a celebration of female hedonism and humour, tongue-in-cheek and subversive; it sets up an arsenal of questions, literally and metaphorically, and does it with a grin.
Portfolio
