Gaia

Jill Berelowitz, 2023

bronze

POA

Gaia is the Ancient Greek goddess representing the entire planet, daughter of Cronos and one of the primordial deities.  Art at the time showed the goddess as both mother and nurturer of all life, a concept revisited in art ever since. In the Romantic period of art and literature, women’s bodies were often placed in natural settings to encourage notions of femaleness—the idea of women as life-giving, nurturing, fruitful and fertile, changeable and in tune with the seasons.

This connection has been the subject of many feminist artists ever since, from Mary Woolstencroft to Emin, some asking whether this connection marginalises women, others celebrating its strength.

This abstracted female bronze torso is at once both the classical, in subject and material hearken, and the contemporary.  The rough sections jar contract with the highly polished bronze, suggesting a woman both flawed and perfect.

We had been waiting for the right piece to install here between the Mulberry and Whistler squares, I’d long seen the beautiful recesses in the stonework as an ideal frame for the right piece.  Luckily for us this was made available by Jill and so the curation decision was a simple one.