Femisphere

MB Stoneman

Opening: December 1 5:30 pm

Viewing: December 1 until December 18

Printmaking personified through a vital female lens – driven by nature, muse, breath, ritual.

Legions of women, we

nestle within hummocks

Overshare in she-sheds

As fresh black hairs

sprout from areola

We pout our musings

over and betwixt

our volcano lahars

The gap in her teeth holds

vertical horizons, star

clusters, hoards of bats

Flotsam gathered

stashed taonga, a

femisphere of pairs

As darker clouds dance

thunderclaps purge

The mounds, the hills

Run to them

Run for your lives

I wrote this poem after reading a zine of the same name gifted by an artist friend. Femisphere was created to give voice to the ‘inclusivity and visibility of women’s practices in the visual arts sector in Aotearoa’, and in turn, helped inspire this body of work.

Femisphere feels like a tangible word to describe the world I create – a merging of geographical elements and philosophies, seen through a distinctive and deliberate female lens.

Aligning the concept of artist as emotionalist, I often convey women as landscape – a tumble of limbs forming hills, rivers running as veins, infinite oceans teeming, lungs as branches, bodies of water spilling out, cups running over. Archetypal forms and symbols are ancient and intuitive.

Transformation. Luminous haze. Female gaze.

Endless regeneration. Abundant fertility. Fierce strength.

Welcome to the Femisphere.

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