2005

 

Sallie Portnoy

Queenscliff, NSW

Two Part Invention (Ruby)

Cast glass

100 H x 15 W x 15 D cm each

These pieces are the symbiosis of the female form and the artistic investigation of positive and negative space; gesture portrayed in 'line', movement and simple sensuality. They are about female empowerment and empowerment of humankind at large. Conscious intellect has won mastery over brute passions. The quest for the Holy Grail. Like the 'sword in the stone', the figures are plunged into their bases (or in the ground) appropriating the swords of heroes which typically come out of stone, a tree, or water, having been forged in fairyland or under a tree by magical beings. They are at once both male and female; at 'base' very sexual; reflective of the basic nature of mankind. They speak of the conflict between opposing forces within us. Between archaic impulses and new aspirations. Pulling the sword out of the stone, in terms of sexual symbolism is freeing the male concious ego (the phallus) from the state of being motherbound.
...or if that's all too much just make of them what you will...