A Little Bit of Them in a Little Bit of Me
It is important for me to understand and show that each woman does not stand alone in their struggle for absolute equality even though we often experience it that way. Women of the past live on in us and provide us with strength and comfort. With this work I want to honour those who have paved the way through great sacrifice. Over time their stories have been used to serve the desires of others and much of it has been left untold. My work aims to suffuse Emily, Joan and Demeter’s stories with more depth and empathy. Emily Dickinson knew that marriage meant sacrificing her freedom and so she made her choice despite longing for both. She chose, so that one day we wouldn’t have to. Joan of Arc was a strong, young woman whose truth got left behind as others stole her story for their own purposes. Demeter was robbed of her agency by the gods playing politics yet she still asserted her power in every way she possibly could. I don’t view these women as victims but rather as martyrs creating new possibilities for humankind. After researching these women, I connected to something in each of their stories. In my work I embody each of them to reflect our shared experience whilst also honouring and thanking them.
Emily Dickinson
A frost came in the night and stole my world
“For those of us who live minor lives and are deprived of a particular kind of love, we know best how to starve.
We deceive ourselves and then others.
It is the worst kind of lie.”
“Please let him come before the afterlife; please let him not forget me.”
It was a matter of heart or soul
she chose soul.
This brought to her
a certain kind of death
But there began
New life
Joan of Arc
You change me
Mould me
Bend and break me
You turn me into a fraud
An unrecognisable version of myself
I am nothing
But desperate tears or
Deranged bellows
Does this bring you ease?
Can you now accept me?
But even then, after I become
whatever you want me to be -
The ending remains the same
You sit back
Sneering, as i
Burn
“You claim that I am sent by the Devil...that is not true...it is you who
have been sent by the Devil - to torment me.”
DEMETER
You contort my path
So it winds around your rocks
And bends in your favour
And I feel
I travel alone
Mislead on my path
When you
Call out my name
Do you see me?
You spit me back out
And I feel
These questions of torment
Ring
Do you see me?
Beyond this form I inhabit
I wonder to myself
Do you really
See me?
And I feel