Lilith’s Complaint 2021, Paintings, paper and domestic materials from daily life. 190cm x190cm.
Lilith’s Complaint - The scene is set in the Garden of Eden and Lilith refuses to lie beneath Adam, during sex. Lilith believed she was equal to Adam, made from the same dust, she wanted autonomy, the freedom to live the way she wanted without any redress.
The Burney Relief - The Sticky Object, the key that opened the door for me into this world of lemons, fruit, trees, fish, Madonnas & political arguments surrounding equality and autonomy.
In 1936 the Illustrated London news Published a picture of the then named Burney Relief (relief | British Museum, no date) featuring a winged female figure flanked by owls and lions, Believed to be an Image of Lilith, Adams first wife, but no one really knows who she is . It now resides in Room 56, of the British Museum, in London.
’Lilith’ . Sarah Chalkie Cloonan 2021,
A4 screen print of the Burney Relief on canvas arranged with Sycamore seeds- Liliths motifs.
I found the image on the cover of a book by Sigmund Hurwitz Lilith - The First Eve published 2020 - A book that examines Lilith’s relevance to a psychological understanding of today’s evolving masculine and feminine identities. I couldn’t suppress the memory of this image, or the questions raised by Hurwitz. The image had become a “Sticky Object’ and the subject demanded my attention.
Rather than resisting I allowed serendipity to become synchronicity, and I decided in unit three to make her and her complaint central to my final piece, allowing the idea of female lore, equality, the freedom to choose, to direct my research, reflection and making.
Lilith in the Sistine Chapel - Lilith had surfaced in my research in Unit 1.
I typed “Garden of Eden” into my search bar while researching The Tree - my motif for home, hearth, continuum & Family lore.
I had wondered where it featured in my quest for where we acquire knowledge.
Fish Tree A2 2021, Collaged Paper, Photocopies, and Drawings.
Up popped the usual motley collection of plant centres and deeply boring biblical diatribes, except for one titled” Adam’s first wife was not eve…”.
Having just written my artists statement declaring my intention to research the curious things that popped up in my daily musings I felt honour bound to click on and investigate this strange title. I was initially convinced that this would be some silly article reporting on a celebrity, complete with wives and daughters surgically adjusted to within an inch of alien Barbie doll look alikes. I was wrong, the article was interesting including excerpts from the Old Testament.
The article was about Lilith and how she was the instigator of original sin along with a picture by Michelangelo (Lilith Pictures: with Adam and Eve, no date).
It cites Eve as the facilitator to Lilith’s dastardly plan to infect man with knowledge. Here is the direct link to the idea that women tempt, and men must resist their entireties as they are wanton and evil. Maybe Hurwitz is right the battle between the sexes is ingrained in our fables and family lore from our earliest teachings.
This idea fits very nicely with my ideas about female lore and the passing of wisdom one women to another and in turn to our families. I am curious as to why knowing was thought to be a sin.
If it was Lilith who offered Eve the apple, I am beginning to understand why she took it, Lilith is very persistent, as I find another image of her in my in box.
It was a photo of carvings depicted in one of the many articles in circulation now reporting the immanent repairs to the Notre Dame in Paris. In the center is Lilith. Why had I been unaware of this female figure up until now?
It was a photo of carvings depicted in one of the many articles in circulation now reporting the imminent repairs to the Notre Dame in Paris. In the center is Lilith. Why had I been unaware of this female figure up until now?
I asked around neither my mother nor my children or husband had any knowledge of the figure Lilith. I asked one of the more senior ladies at the Brompton Oratory church. She promptly put her fingers in her ears and refused to discuss Lilith. I was hooked. There are many tales of Lilith, in the Bible she is only spoken of once in the New Testament and only directly referred to in biblical book of Genesis 1 as Adam's first wife, the "first Eve" to explain the contradictions in the Torah. She is mentioned four times in the Babylonian Talmud and its not until the Alphabet of Ben Sira, (‘Alphabet of Ben Sira’, no date) a rather Chaucerian bawdy tale from 700-1000 aprox. that we really find the woman who we think of as Lilith, and it is here we hear her tell Adam: “We are equal because we are both created from the earth.”
Later on the pre Raphaelite artist Gabriel Charles Dante Rossetti (12 May 1828 – 9 April 1882) depicted his lover Jan Morris as Lady Lilith (‘Lady Lilith’, no date)and wrote a sonnet to her:that we really find the woman who we think of as Lilith, and it is here we hear her tell Adam: “We are equal because we are both created from the earth.” Prior to this it was probably a spoken tale within Jewish Folklore.
Rossetti identified the subject of his Lady Lilith painting as Adam's first wife—"the witch he loved before the gift of Eve." The work (1866-68) was altered in 1872-73 to please patron Frederick Leyland. The original model was Rossetti's lover Fanny Cornforth. Delaware Art Museum
I feel that Lilith is a much-maligned figure, misused and misunderstood by both the establishment and the men around her. I can see why she was taken up as a figurehead by the feminists in the 60 and 70's. There are parallels with both Pandora from the Greek mythologies, and the many other fallen, witch like femme fatals that litter our literature and culture.
Thinking about this I realised didn’t need to use an image of a modern icon, Lilith’s identity’s is still as recognisable now as it was when it first appeared in epic of Gilgamesh - a Sumerian epic poem found on a tablet at Ur, dating from approximately 2000 BC
Other Female Icons to consider - This raised questions about other female figures from family lore, mythology, and current mainstream culture whose images defined the way female virtue is perceived. I was interested in those who nurtured and delivered wisdom, knowledge such as Eve, Pandora, and the many female religious icons including The Virgin Mary, the saints, goddesses that have been part of our cultural landscape for millennia. More recently Wonder woman has returned to our screens as an Amazonian goddess protecting, fighting for truth baring many of the original Lilith characteristics including flying and refusing to be subordinate to any man.
In 2016 Beyoncé(BeyoncéVEVO - YouTube, no date) released a video album in which she deals directly with being a black woman in the 2000s. There is now a course named the Lemonade Syllabus (Lemonade Syllabus | University of Roehampton, no date)based on the content of the album. It is run at various universities including University of Roehampton. Natalie Haynes(Natalie Haynes Stands Up for the Classics - Series 1 - Aspasia - BBC Sounds, no date), while discussing greeks female warriors sites this modern interpretation declaring ‘she is not a woman to be messed with’ as Beyonce re enacts Pipilotti Rist video Color is Dangerous (Channel, 2016)car window smashing, swinging a bat and finally she decks the camera for intruding. She is a woman with a mission to make her point which she dose referencing history and literature to support and inform her argument.
In the same vein Natalie Haynes is in her own words putting women back into the story, center stage, as she reinterprets the Greeks myths. She is irritated by the way women have been reduced from gameplayers to supporting rolls.
I would like to put women back center stage in my work revealing their intrigue and power, making the domestic magic they create and deliver, central to my practise to remind us to live our lives and enjoy opportunities that come our way.
I set about creating small images and objects that I could arrange around a central female figure to question the relevance of Lilith’s complaint to myself and others now in 2021.
The mention of the quest for truth is echoed by Louise Bourgeois (Popova, 2015)who portrayed her mother as a spider within her work, the spider weaves and mends, her parents ran a tapestry business and she thought of her mother as mender. I like the way she creates a narrative from her objects that is not that quickly realised.
Lilith as a motif
In Unit 2 I had scanned, adjusted and screen printed the Lilith’s image, along with other images I associate with female lore. I used it as a found image, to personify maternal lore, and ‘the female in contrast’ and juxtaposition to Jeremy Scots symbols and motifs of masculinity and dominance. This idea of female and male motifs Supports Hurwitz’s ideas that we build our male, female, and other identities upon ideas (and images) from those around us and in what we see and hear, the good and the bad views about the way things should be, are ingrained in us from birth by those who nurture us. This is echoed in Sartre’s belief that we are “blank canvas that life writes on" Sartre’s (Jean-Paul Sartre’s ‘Being and Nothingness:’ A Summary, no date)- A view that is also held by Freud, Kant, and Locke which I examined in my research on Art and Epistemology (art-ep) in unit 1.
Roland Barthes concept of myth may be applied here to this image of Lilith as
according to Barthes, “someone who consumes a myth – such as most tabloid readers – does not see its construction as a myth. They see the image simply as the presence of the essence it signifies...” For instance, they see in the saluting black soldier the presence of French imperiality.(‘An A to Z of Theory Roland Barthes’s Mythologies: A Critical Theory of Myths | Ceasefire Magazine’, no date)
Thinking about this I realised didn’t need to use an image of a modern icon, Lilith’s identity’s is still as recognisable now as it was when it first appeared in epic of Gilgamesh - a Sumerian epic poem found on a tablet at Ur, dating from approximately 2000 BC
Synergy - These ideas are in line with my belief that synergistic learning is the most enjoyable and efficient way to learn and obtain knowledge. Though my research I believe art is well positioned to deliver this effectively in a way that is not offensive or crude, allowing the audience to take in the new, maybe difficult ideas at their own pace, reflect, even make and though this process obtain knowledge. In a confusion manner.
“I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand." (Confucius Quotes, no date)
I observed synergistic learning at the V and A in the ‘Alice - Curiouser and curiouser’ exhibition. (V&A · Alice: Curiouser and Curiouser - Exhibition at South Kensington, no date)
Coupling images with a storyline, puzzle, music, written word, or game allows us to absorb information both actively and passively, the person who delivers the experience is able to steer the success and direction of the finale outcome - although it is also dependant on the participants abilities and previous experiences. As discussed in the lectures I've been attending on line during this year. Alice the exhibition was a wonder piece of theatre around every corner a new surprise. They put modern Technologies to really good use and it was not overwhelming, which can be the danger. You could take it slow and ponder, curiouser and curiouser.
I am beginning to understand why I like static surface art work and textures. They let us stop and fall in to them. Film or everyday movies are too quick for me to dream, I get chopped up like a jay walker in moving traffic. I like to dive in to the pools and recesses and like Laura from Tombraider retrieve and find solutions and answers for my everyday. I want to come back with residue.
The Ghent Altarpiece, St Bavo's Cathedral, Ghent, Belgium.Hubert and Jan van Eyck. 1432 3.5 m x 4.6 m
Ghent Altarpiece
I would like to find a more cryptic way of showing this and when the Ghent altarpiece pings into my inbox, I see a way.
The Gent alter piece Lemon(Inside the Ghent Altarpiece - Lukas - Art in Flanders, no date).
Instead of an apple there is a Lemon I made a copy and turned it so the lemon was arrange on the outside edge, it’s a gift a take away, knowledge.
Assemblages and Tablets of Meaning.
I considered the Lilith image through the lens of Shinto beliefs around notions of animism(animism | Definition, Meaning, Symbol, & Examples, no date) and the religious tradition of reliquaries (Boehm, no date) and wonder if I’m being guided.
Always happy to oblige, I flâneur(Tate, no date) around my domestic daily routines, gathering information, photographs, sketch and do a bit more research into Lilith, no one really agrees about her she is rather wonderfully undefined, she is an enigma.
I remember Mary Kelly’s Tablets of importance from the ICA exhibition in the 70’s (shock horror, nappies) and more recently in a show alongside Agnes Martin and a young artist in the Pippy Holdswothy Gallery, (Kenturah Davis, Mary Kelly, Agnes Martin | 3 December 2020 - 6 February 2021 - Video, no date) I really enjoy the subject matter and arrangements. I would rather use faded images for their universal appeal.
Collaboration with Emily - Sisters of Serendipity, synchronicity, and synergy
Following on from our collaboration in unit 2 where we had produced a wall hanging exploring making as a collective female force, fuelled by tea, sympathy, and the belief that the female skills and attributes should be celebrated Emily and I decided to continue exploring female identity together in unit 3 and expand our wall hanging into a place to be.
We dubbed ourselves the sisters of Serendipity, synchronicity, and synergy, and made a plan and a timetable.
Chalkie’s drawings documented by Emily 2021.
Our works intertwined - chalkie & Emily 2021
Emily produced some very bright, almost fluorescent images featuring plants she wanted to use, and I photographed two of my works in progress, Lilith appeared along with the Salmon of doubt and my 40000-year-old mayfly.
I came up with some ideas about ‘creating a place’ to be centred around the ideals of a female utopia incorporating both Emily’s Eco feminine plant abstracts and my objects and images connected to female lore and concepts of female virtue.
Ernesto Neto, SunForceOceanLife (installation view), 2020, crocheted textile and plastic balls, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Museum purchase funded by the Caroline Wiess Law Accessions Endowment Fund. © 2020 Ernesto Neto / photograph by Albert Sanchez
I had been particularly inspired by Ernesto Neto’s work in unit one and felt this may be a point where we could look at his beliefs surrounding community and social interaction. His work considers our relationship to our planet and our needs as humans to interact with each other and our surroundings, his crochet installations actively encourage interaction by the way they are designed.
We looked at placing seating and maps within our structure to encourage our audience to explore the ideas we wanted to present.
Another site and installation I considered was the Serpentine Pavilion.
Every year an invitation goes out to install a structure in front of the Serpentine Gallery in Hyde Park, London. This is temporary structure commissioned specifically to house outdoor summer events and to be used as a place to meet and gather. This year…
Female collaborations are a productive way to examine and present current female concerns against current views, we discussed highlighting female virtue my ideas around producing Memento vivere.
We talked about the #me too movement (Brockes, 2018) and arranged to go and see Yayoi Kusama, Infinity Mirrors at the Tate Modern with my daughters. We agreed that her installations were inspiring and uplifting.
Yayoi Kusama denies being a feminist, she doesn’t like labels (INTERVIEW: Yayoi Kusama on Sixties New York, Surviving Mental Illness and Why She’s Never Thought About Feminism | Art for Sale | Artspace, no date) but I would suggest she inspires women through having a successful, although at times difficult practice, by pursuing what interests her she is promoting a woman’s point of view.
We decided we would like to promote rather than protest, reveal rather than rally.
It was decided that making, and research would be central to or collaboration but due to the constraints of the final show that it would be unlikely that we could hang both our collaboration and our individual pieces so we would allow a limited time period for investigation and collaboration before we returned to our own personal pieces.
We Chose some images that we could print possible to use as hanging and I produced a blueprint for a digital print that had appeared in my morning emails
Emily and I prepped the material to print on I had spoken to both Lars and Zoltan having seem another student’s work which we felt has the sort of floaty ephemeral feminine effect we wanted. We steered away from silk due to the rather barbaric processes used in its production. Emily Feels very strongly about Eco feminism and I didn’t feel domestic magic could be maintained if we used it. We chose muslin and primed it to stiffen it, making it more receptive to the whiley ways of the Epson inkjet printer.
My sample sheets were very successful although I would need to make them bigger for an interactive experience.
Emily and I wrapped up our collaboration having investigated our idea of a place to be, a resting place full of female gifts and ideas hopefully one day we shall have the time and space to deliver it.
I would like to put Women back center stage in my work revealing their intrigue and power making the domestic magic they create central to my practise with this in mind I set about creating small images and object that I could arrange around a central female figure to question the relevance of Lilith’s complaint to myself now in 2021.
The Ghent Altarpiece, St Bavo's Cathedral, Ghent, Belgium. Hubert and Jan van Eyck. 1432 3.5 m x 4.6 m Detail
I considered the Lilith image through the lens of Shinto beliefs around notions of animism(animism | Definition, Meaning, Symbol, & Examples, no date) and the religious tradition of reliquaries (Boehm, no date) and wonder if I’m being guided.
Always happy to oblige, I flâneur(Tate, no date) around my domestic daily routines, gathering information, photographs, sketch and do a bit more research into Lilith, no one really agrees about her she is rather wonderfully undefined, she is an enigma.
I went to see the Rodin Exhibition and wondered if his flying woman, is Lilith I love this idea of flying, complete freedom from the daily domestic duties.
I begin to see Lilith everywhere, inspired I paint small copy, my way and am reminded of Alvaro barringtons talk on stealing from other artist. His advice was that if you were going to copy or steal from any artist you needed to include a lot of them to get away with it. (Alvaro Barrington | Artists I Steal From, no date)
Rodin A4 watercolour Tate Exhibition 2021
While considering reliquaries I considered how synchronicity, as coined by Jung in the 1950s works alongside synergy and decided to try out ideas using objects and images in conjunction with other stimulus- Light smell sound etc.
Finally I arranged, edited, re-edited and rearranged all the elements that I had gathered and remade, including; a lemon, a gland, a pomegranate, a tablet of meaning, a flying woman, two trees of knowledge - one on paper, the other a panel, faded like a memory, - a monoprint of the cloth, and the central mother and child figures with features and composition taken from the The Virgin and Child between Saints Anthony of Padua and Roch
Ca. 1508. Oil on canvas. from Room 042 of the Prado, where I used to go to reflect and ponder my own autonomy.
Lemon 2021 Chalkie Cloonan. Digital image.
Lemons, bittersweet inhabit my dreams, and sit on the side of the bowl, nice in tea, better with honey, once more expensive than gold. Lemons blond the hair.
Bibliography
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Hurwitz, S. (2007) Lilith-The First Eve: Historical and Psychological Aspects of the Dark Feminine. Daimon.
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relief | British Museum (no date) The British Museum. Available at: https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/W_2003-0718-1 (Accessed: 14 September 2021).
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