Breasts Universe, Artemide D'Efesia

Ceramic glazed, 5 pieces, cotton ad textile (2 pillows). Sculpture view at Museo Delle Navi Romane, Nemi, Rome

photos Giorgio Benni

The sculpture is composed of five glazed ceramic pieces and two handmade textile inserts. Each piece is arranged vertically to resemble a totem.

The artwork focuses on reimagining the iconography related to the representation of Artemis in her Ephesian version: "Lady of animals and nature, cosmic and fertility deity, Artemis is the ancient goddess who embodies these functions" (source: https://www.fondazionetorlonia.org/en/statuetta-artemide-efesia). My intervention aims to highlight the characteristics of a sensual and terrifying figure, divine yet monstrous, attracting and repelling at the same time.

This figure aims to represent the perception of women in contemporary society, which has been shaped by a patriarchal society due to cultural and religious legacies that have become ingrained in our skin. The aspect of fertility that the Goddess represents was exalted by a matriarchal and pagan cult, which was later brutally supplanted by a patriarchal cult dominated by the figure of the male God in various religions.

The female body physiologically possesses the power to generate life and even decide death (as seen in the right to abortion). It is a complex organism that has always instilled fear and apprehension, perceived as monstrous in many aspects. When women did not want to be confined to the role of mother, they were considered mad or witches and were burned and eliminated. Throughout history, women have been confined to the role of mother and midwife as if it were their sole and only purpose, mainly to prevent their active participation in society. Motherhood has been, and continues to be, used not in its positive characteristics as a life-generating force, but as a condition of isolation and subjugation of women by capitalist society.

Women themselves, now more than ever, are victims of these social archetypes and perceive the characteristics that make them physiologically superior as limitations, limitations regarding access to roles dictated by a patriarchal society.

Women "self-castrate," often feeling guilty both in the role of mother and in the desire not to be one. These aspects represent aspects of my research related to reflections that arose from personal experiences of an autobiographical nature, such as the experience of breast cancer and motherhood immediately after, which have led me to reflect on conditions to which I myself was subjected, albeit unconsciously.

During my research, I have found the following books to be relevant to these reflections:

"Dead Blondes and Bad Mothers: Monstrosity, Patriarchy, and the Fear of Female Power" by Sady Doyle, 2019.
"Caliban and the Witch: Women, the Body, and Primitive Accumulation" by Silvia Federici, 2004.
"When God Was a Woman" by Merlin Stone, 1976, it. edition 2011.