Stevie Fieldsend – Umbra Exhibition at Artereal Gallery
Stevie Fieldsend’s visceral sculptures are steeped and congealed in the juice and sap of the life force, They are about blood, and ink and the rituals and marks of belonging - and of not belonging. Of both wearing the marks of heritage; and making your own mark. Of family and of desire…
The sensual and sensuous Umbra works are surrogates for the female body, physically and psychologically and indicative of birth and rebirth and homage to the fortitude of women and female potency. They are also evocative of headdresses that are associated with celebration of Malu. In Fieldsend’s sculptures the inky cascading fringe is redolent of both the long hair and grass skirts of Samoan women, of goddess figures, yet also the drape of couture; of the dark depths and wind and rippling water across which the ancestor sisters travelled to bring tatua to Samoa; and of emotional tangling and untangling. The Malu rite and this body of work marks a significant and cathartic life event for the bi-racial and bi-cultural artist, signalling entry into Samoan society and bringing a sense of belonging and a measure of expiation and peace after a life-long fraught and estranged relationship with her late Samoan father.
EXHIBITION
Umbra
Stevie Fieldsend
Artereal Gallery
6 – 30 AUGUST 2014
Video by Veronica Habib and William Bullock
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