The Web
THE WEB, which I created in 1985, is a 45’ in diameter double-sided collage on cloth.
It consists of 15 panels attached together with red ropes. The red color represents our collective sacred blood and even more so women’s menstrual blood which was considered sacred in ancient times and which was used in ceremonies during the Paleolithic and Neolithic periods.
The center panel depicts the Great Goddess who began it all – on one side of the collage she is a black woman and the other side she is white. In the panels of the first ring one can see the suffragists here and in Europe, the Abolitionist movements in the U.S. and in Europe, the Civil Rights movement, the Anti-Apartheid movement and the Gay Rights movement.
In the seven panels on the outer ring are the actions of women’s encampments at Seneca Falls, Greenham Common in England, Comiso in Italy and other encampments around the world. Depicted also are the Gay and Lesbian movement in the U.S. and in Europe, the Abortion Rights movement here and in Europe, The ERA movement, the Anti-Apartheid movement, and various movements in South America as well as general women’s accomplishments and struggles all over the World.
Attaching the red ropes
Preparing the Web with my assistants
Many thanks to Timberline Tree Inc for hanging the Web
The Nest
In 1990 I started creating what I called Human Nests. I created a total of 15 Nests for sculpture parks in the U.S. and in Europe. I mostly used wild grapevines but in some I used mud, leaves, straw and sting. I gathered vines of various sizes and width in the forest with my assistants. The thick vines would be employed first to outline the shape and dimensions of the piece. Then we would interweave the other vines around each other until we had a loose structure that resembled a large nest. Just like birds’ nests, the Human Nests were not meant to be permanent structures: eventually they would flatten out, fall apart and return to the forest.
These works were not meant to be copies of bird dwellings – such duplication would be much too difficult because the originals are so complex – but rather influenced and inspired by them.
To appreciate fully the beauty and complexity of these structures I’ve always encouraged viewers to sit inside the space.
Arriving at Garner Arts Center with a truck full of vines
Instructing my assistant Peter on how to weave the vines
