Colette Brannigan - Artist's Statement
Abortion is part of our ancient civilisation, and yet its effects, for both men and women are still little understood.
It would be helpful to find some qualified reference to abortion in mainstream western philosophy and psychology, but it is not readily available even within feminist discourse. So we are left scrabbling around in the dark, in dangerous waters, trying to find a word for the blood flow after a termination, or struggling to explain to our partners the fear, loneliness and guilt of sitting on a toilet, alone, wondering when the bleeding will stop.
How do we describe the emotional memories held deep within our ovaries, which are triggered by certain thoughts and by touching certain objects? Do we have to come to our own self-realisation, that childless and nearing the end of our reproductive cycles, the primal unconscious urges, that Freud spoke of, cannot be as simply and conveniently violated, as we have been led to believe?
In Squatter 2008 I have used the metaphor of a demolition order to describe the 8 week period before a termination, to neutralise the emotional intensity of the subject matter by using everyday language.
EL OFF is scrawled on a door, warning that the electricity has been turned off, that there are no utilities or comforts to be found here, and all squatters are unwelcome.
The ‘squatter’ refered to in the title, not only suggests the parasitic nature of an unborn child to its mother, but also refers to the unlawful act of squatting which was seen as a rejection of capitalist society.
This piece recalls the Thatcher years’ and tries to question the level of responsibility the state should take for a woman seeking an abortion.
There are undoubtedly many individual reasons for a woman to choose to terminate her pregnancy, but there is one reason not often heard, namely the loathing of one’s own society. In this respect an abortion can be seen to be a powerful political protest, a willingness to forsake a life, whatever the cost, because it is inconceivable to adhere and conform to the rigid social stereotypes, which are required in rearing children.
So the female form, within this work, is represented by its dualistic nature, a highly crafted mass produced manufactured object, no longer containing the nurturing instincts found in my previous work. The endangered primal figure, embroidered and parcel taped onto the sleeve of the leather jacket, is trapped and imperilled behind a stained-glass pylon, etched in steel, blood streaming from its arm.
This piece suggests a morbid refusal to reproduce that corresponds with the words of Herbert Marcuse in Eros and Civilisation.
‘’The revolt at home against home seems largely impulsive, its targets hard to define: a nausea caused by ‘a way of life’, revolt as a matter of physical and mental hygiene’
The work moves from an urban to a naturalistic setting in Falconer 2010. Falconry is defined as a sport which involves the training of a raptor to hunt or pursue game for a human; espalier is the training of a tree, to bear fruit, through systematic pruning. Both these activities are a domestication of the wild forces of Nature, something akin to Freud’s descriptions of the repression of our most basic and natural instincts.
This is an ambiguous piece, for it is not clear who is flying the hawk, or how and why it has been killed. The naked ironing board, which has been tarred and feathered, wears a talisman for protection. The tableau of a bird of prey, snatching a primal pregnant figure, includes the warning feathers of a scarecrow, or tribal witch doctor. The mosaic has been burnt and hammered. A male figure leans against a wall, chewing on a match, perhaps the protagonist.
It is not clear whether the willow chair has been bent by the force of the wind, or from having been confined in too small a space. The blood on its seat seeps into its own shadow on the mosaic floor, merging with the blood of the bird.
A quote by Aristotle is posted on the wall,
‘what may or may not be lawfully done in these cases depends on life and sensation itself’.
Aristotle, Politics 7.16 (350 BC)