Burned: Women and Fire

BURNED

WOMEN AND FIRE

Turner Carroll Gallery 725 Canyon Road, Santa Fe, NM 87501 505.986.9800 turnercarrollgallery.com info@turnercarrollgallery.com Š2020 Turner Carroll Gallery Essay: Tonya Turner Carroll Design: Shastyn Blomquist Photography: courtesy of the artists Front Cover: Judy Chicago Study for Flaming Fist, 2012 watercolor on paper 12 x 9 in.

Inside Front Cover: Monica Lundy Hospital and Gardens of Santa Maria della PietĂ , Rome Series Left to Right: Tin Cup, Fork, Scissors, Thuya Branch, Tigli (Lime) Leaf, 2019/2020 burned drawing on Fabriano paper 11 x 9 in. ea.

Back Cover: Lien Truong The tonic cleanse of warm rain, 2019/2020 oil, silk, acrylic, lacquer, bronze pigment on canvas 84 x 72 in. diptych

BURNED: WOMEN AND FIRE Fire is one of the most potent symbols in human history. It purifies, illuminates, destroys, and transforms.

“Mother Earth” has fire in its core. That magma—hot, molten rock—is an igneous rock. The name igneous comes from the word ignis, which means “fire” in Latin. This fire sporadically pushes its way through cracks in the earth’s crust and erupts from volcanoes, burning everything in its path to create a way for new life to emerge from the magma. Wildfires act in the same way, coming by surprise, expanding exponentially, and consuming fuel in its path, while simultaneously opening some types of seed pods for future growth.

The first civilizations in the Near East revered forces of nature and their enormous and only modestly predictable impact on daily life. Later, they would be personified as deities. Many ancient cultures saw fire as a supernatural force: Greeks maintained perpetual fires in front of their temples, Zoroastrians worshiped and regarded fire as pure wisdom that destroys chaos and ignorance, and Buddhist cultures practiced ritual cremation to purify the body upon its release from the physical world.

When early religions began transferring attributes of forces of nature to specific deities, many cultures equated fire rising from “Mother Earth” with archetypes of women. The Sumerian goddess Lilith had a fiery ability to control men. In Egypt, the serpent goddess Wadjet used fire like a snake spitting venom to burn her enemies. In the Philippines, Darago was the warrior goddess associated with volcanoes. Roman goddess Feronia was associated with the energy of reproduction and the fire beneath the earth’s crust.

These ancient goddesses were fierce and powerful, and they used fire as their tool.

As male rulers took political, religious, and economic power through organized conflict, the diminution of women’s power was the result. Instead of depicting women as independent forces of nature, biblical authors described them pejoratively as harlots and sinners. These authors used fire to symbolize the guiding presence of God, and Abrahamic religions embraced the destructive power of fire as the wrath of God. In the Torah/Old Testament story of Eve, her bold pursuit of knowledge was as terrifying as a fiery natural disaster. When Eve was in the Garden of Eden she “saw that the tree was good for food…and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her.” “The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat” Adam said, as he successfully blamed the woman for his choices and actions. The male God then cursed all women for Eve’s independent decision-making and disobedience: “I will greatly multiply thy sorrow…and thy husband…he shall rule over thee.”

Those words of condemnation, and words like them in other male-dominated institutions, attempted to change societal perception of women from personification of fire, and its natural ability to create and destroy, into the scorned embodiment of sin. Just as early Roman Christians built churches on top of pagan temples and later placed the orb and cross atop obelisks they looted from ancient Egypt, governments usurped female power by forcing a narrative of male moral, intellectual, and physical superiority. These

institutions took archetypically “female” fire as their own symbol, using it as their weapon to control and limit women’s minds, bodies, and potential. Examples of this include doctors in pharaonic Egypt using fire to cure “hysteria” by forcing the uterus (hystera) upwards. Caught between the English and French monarchs, Joan of Arc was burned alive in 1431 despite being credited previously for the French victory at the Siege of Orleans. In early modern England, women were burned at the stake as a legal punishment for a range of activities including coining and mariticide. In 1652 in Smithfield, Prudence Lee confessed to having “been a very lewd liver, and much given to cursing and swearing, for which the Lord being offended with her, had suffered her to be brought to that untimely end.” She admitted to being jealous of and arguing with her husband. For this, she was burned at the stake, as were thousands of other women. In the late 1850s, The Industrial Revolution produced gauzy new fabrics that when made into funnel-shaped dresses, ignited instantly upon being touched by a spark. Their flammability made them death traps for women, preventing them from safely doing ordinary things men could do, such as lighting a match, standing close to a fire, or smoking a cigarette, lest they be burned alive.

Tragically, women are still burned to death by men today. In New Zealand in 2011, a groom doused his bride with flammable liquid, set her on fire, and left her by the side of the road to die so he could obtain a higher dowry from another. In 2015 in New Guinea, four women were tortured and burned for sorcery.

Acid-burning is at an all-time high, occurring from the United Kingdom to Southeast Asia. In India and Pakistan, widows are sometimes burned to death atop their deceased husband’s funeral pyre, and the highly suspect “kitchen fire” excuse is all too common. In contemporary honor killings, families burn their own daughters and sisters for making unapproved decisions about their own marriage. The United Nations estimates that as many as 5000 women are killed annually world-wide in honor killings. Today, this act is not illegal in such modern nations as Jordan.

It is no wonder the element of fire is ingrained in women’s collective memory. Fire represents women’s power and their torture. In women’s own hands, it is their independent creative spark; in the hands of those who want to suppress them it can destroy their very lives. Burned: Women and Fire features artists who—like the alchemical Phoenix who burns and rises from the ashes anew—integrate their collective experience with fire and burning to create their art.

Tonya Turner Carroll Santa Fe January 2020

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JUDY CHICAGO Judy Chicago is indisputably one of the most influential artists of our time. She has fought relentlessly throughout her more than 50-year career, for equal acknowledgment for women artists in museums, galleries, and society. As Gloria Steinem describes Judy Chicago’s impact, the history of art can be defined as before and after Judy Chicago. Chicago’s well-known Dinner Party is the quintessential statement of Feminist Art and is on permanent display at the Brooklyn Museum. Chicago is not only an exceptional artist, but she is also an intellectual who has created pedagogical curricula for women artists, tackled profound interdisciplinary collaborations with women of all walks of life, from American embroiderers to Maria Grazia Chiurri, head of Dior Couture. She has been awarded Honorary Doctorate degrees from five universities, and multitudes of books have been written about her. Judy Chicago’s works are included in major museums throughout the world, including the British Museum; Moderna Museet, Stockholm; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; National Gallery, Washington DC; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles; Hammer Museum; Getty Trust and Getty Research Institute; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Tate Modern; Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art; Art Institute of Chicago; et al. Judy Chicago’s major retrospective exhibition opens at The DeYoung Museum in May 2020.

Judy Chicago Study for Flaming Fist, 2012 watercolor on paper 12 x 9 in.

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Judy Chicago The Creation, 1985 serigraph on grey Rives BFK 30 x 40 in. ed. 27/75 4

Judy Chicago Grand Flaming Fist, 2007 etching and glass paint on cast glass 20.75 x 6.5 x 7.5 in.

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Judy Chicago Retrospective in a Box, 2009-12 ten mixed media prints 28.75 x 22 ea. ed. 17/50 6

HUNG LIU Hung Liu has devoted her life to her art, compelled to give voice to the nameless women of history. She grew up in China during the Maoist era, forced to leave her family and work in the fields for four long years.

Liu relentlessly followed her dream of attending art school in the U.S., waiting several years to be granted a passport, deferring her enrollment for one more year each time her passport was denied.

With sheer will, talent, and vision, Liu transformed the two suitcases of her former life in China into paintings now featured in over 50 top museum collections in the world, including The Metropolitan Museum of Art, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, The Whitney Museum of American Art, The National Gallery of Art, Dallas Museum of Art, DeYoung Museum, et al.

Named “One of the most influential artists of the last 100 years” by Smithsonian Curator Dorothy Moss, Hung Liu’s widely anticipated retrospective at The National Portrait Gallery will open in May, 2021.

Hung Liu Left: Candle I; Right: Candle III, 2020 mixed media on panel 20.5 x 20.5 in ea.

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Hung Liu Bride, 2018 mixed media on panel 50 x 50 in.

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Hung Liu Garden Scene, 2003 oil on canvas 60 x 60 in.

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Etsuko Ichikawa Japanese artist Etsuko Ichikawa describes herself as a multi-media artist, visual storyteller, and activist.

Born and raised in Tokyo, Japan, Ichikawa’s works are deeply informed by nature--its beauty and its challenges. The Fukishima nuclear meltdown had a big impact on Ichikawa, and since that time, Etsuko has explored the impact of heat and fire on natural elements in her work. In her highly developed, unique technique, Ichikawa applies hot molten glass (fire) onto paper resulting in scorched drawings the artist terms Pyrographs; ephemeral works that are poetic records of a performative moment in time.

Etsuko Ichikawa’s work has been exhibited internationally, including The Museum of Fine Arts Boston, Seattle Art Museum, 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art in Kanazawa, Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art, Museum of Northwest Art, University of Wyoming Art Museum, Grand Rapids Art Museum, Tokyo University of the Arts, Arkansas Art Center, Kirkland Art Center, Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum, Seattle Art Museum, and The Ueno Royal Museum in Tokyo. She has been awarded grants from the Pollock Krasner Foundation, Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Etsuko Ichikawa Trace 3318 (diptych), 2017 glass pyrograph on paper 30 x 45 in.

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Etsuko Ichikawa Encounter 458, 2008 glass pyrograph on paper 30 x 22.5 in.

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Etsuko Ichikawa Trace 2614, 2014 glass pyrograph on paper 30 x 22.5 in.

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Etsuko Ichikawa Virtrified 5418 (diptych), 2019 glass pyrograph and pigment on paper 30 x 45� in.

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Etsuko Ichikawa Encounter 4609, 2009 glass pyrograph on paper 30 x 22.5 in.

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MONICA LUNDY Monica Lundy is an Italian-American artist who grew up in Saudi Arabia. She studied with Hung Liu at Mills College for her BFA, and received her MFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Lundy was awarded the esteemed Jay De Feo Award at Mills College, and was invited to attend the Visiting Artists and Scholars Program at the American Academy in Rome. Lundy investigates the ways women have been unjustly incarcerated during their lifetimes, by locking them into prisons and mental institutions sometimes for simply for being unconventional or “disobedient.” Monica’s works have been exhibited at San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art, de Saisset Museum, Berkely Art Center, Brown University, and numerous others. Monica Lundy recently completed an impressive exhibition at Museo Laboratorio della Mente in Rome, which inspired her works in this exhibition.

Monica Lundy Armidia, 2018 coffee, burned paper and charcoal on Khadi paper 30 x 43 in.

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Monica Lundy Gabriella, 2018 coffee, burned paper and charcoal on Khadi paper 30 x 23 in.

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Monica Lundy Donatella, 2003 coffee, burned paper and charcoal on Khadi paper 63 x 44 in.

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Monica Lundy Hospital Pharmacy of Santa Maria della Pietà, Rome Series Top row left to right: Glass Bottle, Ossido Giallo di Mercurio (Yellow Mercury Oxide), Cloruro d’oro Bruno all’1% (1% Brown Gold Chloride), Creosoto (Creosote); middle row left to right: Glass Flasks, Glass Bottle #3, Novocaína (Novocaine), Glass Cylinder; bottom row left to right: Borace (Borax), Mercurio Cianuro (Mercury Cyanide), Alcool (Alcohol), Estratto Fluido di Arancio Amaro (Fluid Extract of Bitter Orange) burned drawing on Fabriano paper 11 x 9 in. each 18

JAMI PORTER LARA Jami Porter Lara is a contemporary conceptual artist, using the 2000 year old Mata-Ortiz blackened pottery technique to create her work. She considers herself a “reverse archaeologist”, taking contemporary items such as discarded water jugs found on the US/Mexico border, and transforming their image into exquisitely rendered works of art with a reduction-fire process conducted on her own land.

Porter Lara’s work is in public and private collections nationwide, and has been featured in Art 21 Magazine, CFile, Hyperallergic, PBS., and Artsy, which named her one of the artists shaping the future of ceramics.

Her works have been exhibited at National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, DC; the New Mexico Museum of Art in Santa Fe, NM; Albuquerque Museum of Art; and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, CA.

Jami Porter Lara LDS-MHB-9SBR-0917CE-01, 2017 Pit-fired foraged clay 18 x 8 x 8 inches Photo: Addison Doty, courtesy Peters Projects 19

Jami Porter Lara, LDS-MHB-BGBR-0817CE-01, 2017 Pit-fired foraged clay 14 3/4 x 6 1/2 x 4 inches Photo: Addison Doty, courtesy Peters Projects 20

LIEN TRUONG Born in Saigon, Vietnam, Lien Truong’s work has a universal voice. Like her graduate school professor Hung Liu, Truong explores issues of gender, race, and history in her works. Truong’s paintings seem purely abstract at first, but upon deeper investigation, they reveal eastern iconography, precision, and materials.

Truong’s works have been featured in exhibitions at the National Portrait Gallery; North Carolina Museum of Art; Station Museum of Contemporary Art; Weatherspoon Art Museum; Oakland Museum of California; Nhasan Collective and Galerie Quynh, Vietnam; Art Hong Kong; and S.E.A. Focus, Singapore. Lien Truong was awarded the prestigious Joan Mitchell Foundation grant in 2020.

Lien Truong According to the Spectre of Blood and Water, 2019 oil, silk, acrylic, vintage Japanese textile, gold and copper pigment 72 x 96” in.

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Lien Truong The incident under the canopy of a pink palm, 2019/2020 oil, silk, acrylic, lacquer, bronze pigment on canvas 84 x 72 in. diptych 22

KAREN YANK Karen Yank had a lifelong friendship and mentorship with Agnes Martin. She became a steel sculptor at a time when there were few women artists working with this unwieldy, difficult material. Yank has gone on to win numerous monumental sculpture commissions throughout the United States. Her works have been featured in several museums, including the Albuquerque Museum of Art; Museum of Fine Arts, Santa Fe, NM; University of Wisconsin; Silver City Museum; and several others.

Karen Yank Small XO V, 2020 steel and stainless steel 11 x 14 x 3 in.

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Karen Yank Small XO edition, 2020 steel and stainless steel 11 x 14 x 3 in. ed. 2/25 24

Karen Yank Billow, 2019 steel and stainless steel 50.5 x 47 x 8 in.

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