Nitza flantz art/life, sculptures
The illusive pelvis a sculpture with a story 2010 Mullumbimby Australia, aged 67
I don't really know if this happens to all women, or only to me, but I've found that many of my body aches, especially skeletal pains, are affected by high level tension in the pelvic area. Much have I learned from many teachings and theories, and still I find myself controlled by my emotional world when it comes to this part of my body. When I'm frightened or scared from anything, realistic or imagined, I contract my pelvis and shut it. When I feel pain that just won't go away, I seek help. I have a few wonderful, professional women, who know how to soften my pain through physical body work. One of them, Petra Karni, who knows that I'm a plastic artist, asked me, half smiling, "why don't you try sculpting the pelvis shape?" At first I thought she was joking, but then I began thinking about it seriously, because I suddenly saw, that even though I've been painting and sculpting women most of my life, and have studied and copied many anatomic drawings, I still don't really "get" the pelvic shape.
My favorite sculpting technique is using thin sheets of metal mesh, spread on a basic skeletal form. Although working with this material can scratch and hurt my hands, there are a few advantages to it. The metal mesh can be both firm and flexible, especially when using the grid diagonally. I like its lightness and transparency and the way it reminds me of a black and white sketch; and the very practical fact, that it can be cut with regular scissors and sewn and put together with a round needle.
I did some research and discovered that there are distinctions between the feminine and the masculine pelvis. I focused on the feminine pelvis. I made a lot of sketches, all the while imagining how it is positioned inside my body.
When I began sculpting the figure, and the shape, with all its complexity, began materializing in my hands and in front of my eyes, I discovered the most amazing organic form ever. It had the shape of a basket, attached through the spinal cord to the upper part of the body, and to the lower limbs. It had a right-left symmetry, but was open in its upper part and closed – or rather, closed with openings and portals – in its lower part.
I had never understood the strength and flexibility of the pelvic form, the way it protects our uterus, and the ability it holds to widen and to close. It is an organic form that holds a deep secret, and it is influenced and influences our physical structure and our emotional world. And when the statue was done, and the pelvis I held in my hand was a bit bigger than the one inside my body, I could do with it all the things I cannot do with my inner one. I laid it in many ways, I rolled it again and again on the “sitting bones� and was surprised to see the range of the angles the pelvis had in its joining with the body. I hung it on transparent threads from the ceiling, and the whole shape, which I always thought of as a basic shape, closer to the ground, looked as if it's spreading beautiful wings.
I wasn't expecting a miracle, and I didn't believe that my skeletal pains will vanish, since my body is a body of an old woman. But after finishing my pelvis sculpture, every time I would look at it, or at the digital photos I took of it, something always relaxed in me, and the pain didn't take over any more. And I would conceal and assimilate the form into my body, imagining the live pelvis and the sculpture into one.
The illusive pelvis Materials: Metal mesh and wire Dimensions: height 45cm; width 45cm; depth 30cm Weight: approx. 2kg