J e n n a B e a n F i n n i g a n
Origin and Orbit
Slip, India ink, pigment. 2014.
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 Orbit and Origin |  Orbit and Origin |  Orbit and Origin |
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 Orbit and Origin |
When individuals have been raised in a place, its textures and sensations, its smells and sounds, are recalled as they felt to a child’s, adolescent’s, adult’s body. Even if that individual’s history there is short, the place can still be felt as an extension of the body, especially the walking body, passing through and becoming part of the landscape, even if it is only for a moment. As an artist, I experience and express many of my senses visually. I can trace the influences of a lot of my artwork to my sense of smell. There are many aspects of contemporary art that have dealt with ideas of exchange and loss of materials, physical and emotional. These are located throughout the boundaries of political and social dynamics within a place just as memories are recollected. Nor black or white, the gray stained forms represent the retrievable memory scuffed and smudged as time has progressed. Memories are then forever stained by interpretation, judgment, and reflection. The cornucopia-like shape is meant to question boundaries and bounty. I intended these forms to represent both origin and orbit.
Lippard, Lucy R. The Lure of the Local; senses of place in a multicentered society. Pg. 34
Corvidae
Wax/Acrylic Casts. 2015.
European witchcraft recordings originated in the 1400s. The term “witchcraft”, in medieval Europe, is broadly associated with the Devil. In reality, witchcraft was empowering for the women and a form of “spiritual expression”. Witchcraft originated in a strictly patriarchal, religious time period. Thus, resulting in interpretations and connotations that oppressed women and perpetuated the idea that witches were inherently evil people. These interpretations and connotations were the result of aspects of society most threatened by witchcraft; male authority and Catholicism. Furthermore, medieval ideology, an empowering practice of spirituality, was misinterpreted and made to seem evil with the use of witch hunting throughout society by male authority; therefore oppressing its followers and women in general. This oppression led to the death of many women by fire with unreasonable cause. However, the myth continues that the women wronged are reincarnated into large black crows. I was thinking about reincarnation as a form of artificial nature and how that concept can navigate discourse on gender.