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| Judy Chicago The Dinner Party, Detail 1974-1979 Brooklyn Museum, USA |
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Rights (Photo / Work):
Photo © Donald Woodman
Photographer (www.DonaldWoodman.com) © Judy Chicago, 2013 and licensed for use by Bildrecht, Wien, 2013 |
Each place setting consists of a hand-painted plate in a style appropriate to the woman and her era. On each plate is depicted the woman's vulva - sometimes in an abstracted way, sometimes in a very clear and natural way. Under the plate is placed a hand-embroidered runner with the woman's name on the front-side and symbolic embroideries relating to the woman on the backside. The concept, indeed, is based on numerology. There are 13 place settings on each side of the table – at the last supper there were present 13 men, 13 people are present in witch rituals.[1] The number 13 has a positive and a negative connotation at the same time: "Chicago intented to oppose the number of the male holiness to the female godlessness."[2] The vagina symbolism of the 39 plates stemmed from the women's liberation movement in the 1970s in America.[3] Mary Jane Sherfey's text circulated in i.a. artistic circles. The author explored the significance of the clitoris and the women's capability of experiencing multiple orgasms, contradicting thus Sigmund Freud's theory who states that the libido is an exclusively male phenomenon.[4] The butterfly as a symbol of liberation is reproduced in each place setting, experiences a metamorphose, being depicted here small, then bigger and more liberately.[5]
Biografie: http://www.judychicago.com/about/bio.php (Translation: K. Seifter) |
