Weïrd Women
I picked this sculpture up at a quilt guild garage sale event recently. The work is considered a “soft sculpture”, made of cloth, clay and yarn, with each figure embellished with various fabrics, ribbons and fantastic flyaway hair. Boy can I relate to that crazy hair! It seems the older I get, the more weird my hair becomes. The artwork is signed by Gretchen Lima and dated 1998.
Ms. Lima has been making doll sculptures for over 35 years. She explains on her website how these works come to be (https://www.gretchenlima.com/pages/about.html). Her pieces begin with a sketch, then a rough prototype is cut out of muslin. Using Sculpey clay she creates the faces, and often hand knits or hand dyes the clothing. She states: “My work is not only an expression of what I see, but of what I feel. I create the messages and give a voice to a girl inside who has patiently waited to be heard…Artwork is a process of discovery, for the artist as well as the observer. What you discover is in harmony with where you are on your voyage of life”.
There is something that drew both me and my quilting friend to the sculpture. My friend picked up the work at an art fair back in 1998. She noted she is one of three sisters, though these do not reflect her sisters specifically. While I do have three sisters, that was not what came to mind when I saw the work. I loved the details, the handmade quirkiness, and the slightly creepy sense the three females evoke. While a group of three women can refer to the Three Graces, the dark colors and weird hair of these made me think of Shakespeare, and his three witches.
The Sisters, hand in hand,
Posters of the sea and land,
Thus do go about, about,
Thrice to thine and thrice to mine
And thrice again, to make up nine. MacBeth (Act 1 scene 3)
The play, written in 1605, was based on an earlier work by Raphael Holinshed “Chronicles of England, Scotland and Ireland”. In that work, the 3 females are not called witches but are “weird sisters”, or goddesses of destiny. Much earlier in England, your fortune was considered the workings of “wyrd”, a mysterious force. Over time, the term became “weird” and was more associated with destiny, similar to the ancient Greek idea of the female “Fates” who decided your life’s journey.
A search on Google landed me at the Shakespeare Globe Theater website, which provided a bit of these tidbits (https://www.shakespearesglobe.com/discover/the-history-of-the-witches-in-macbeth/). I also learned that in his First Folio, Shakespeare referred to the 3 women in MacBeth as “wayward” (also spelled “weyward” and “weyard”) instead of “weird”. The early audiences understood “wayward” as a term applied to women “who were perceived to be outspoken or quarrelsome (cardinal sins according to the misogynistic theories of Shakespeare’s England). Women who asserted their wisdom and knowledge…[were] castigated as “wayward”. By combining the ideas of “wyrd” and “wayward”, Shakespeare created the concept of powerful women but also dangerous and marginalized women. Thus was born the familiar stereotype of “poor, disregarded and insulted old women whose wisdom, if acknowledged at all, could be understood only as witchcraft” and thus were dangerous.
It should be noted that the horrific witch trials in England were at their crazed peak in the 1600s. Roughly 500 people were killed as witches in England, 90% of which were women. King James VI, crowned in 1603, changed the English Witchcraft Act which created “witch hunters”. Their favorite target? Old women with cats.
All I have to say is thank god I did not live in the 1600s in England – I would have been WAYWARD in a bold, capital letter kind of way. While Ms. Lima feels her inner child waits patiently to be heard – and created – I confess I’m not quite so passive. And thankfully no cats around at this point in my life. These three women make me realize the complex, rather patriarchal attacks against women have been the underpinnings of our society for centuries. Cat ladies indeed.