DOMINION

The drawing "Dominion" was inspired both by ancient patriarchal views of women and by recent debates in our country about access to health care and reproductive choices for women, their right to equal pay for equal work, and legislation that seeks to protect them from domestic abuse and gun violence.

U.S. congressmen and media personalities have supported such ideas as women who advocate for health insurance to cover contraception are “sluts,” and lesbians and American Indian and immigrant women should be denied services available to other victims of domestic violence.

The Arab Spring has highlighted the many ways in which women all over the world are denied basic human rights because of religious or cultural traditions stemming from ancient patriarchies, which regarded them as property, intended for sexual pleasure, domestic labor, and childbearing.

I wished to create an image that reflected the ancient patriarchal view of woman as a passive element of nature over which man has dominion, as in traditional interpretations of the Bible. Rodin's sculpture “Eve” inspired the female figure that I have depicted overlaying the branches, trunk, and roots of a tree. The superimposition of the female form and the tree symbolizes this view of woman as a passive element, submitting under man's dominion, and alludes, as well, to the biblical tree of life.

The posture of the naked Eve figure suggests shame or submission; her belly and pubic area, the covering of and entrance to her womb, are a central focus of the composition. The stones in the foreground and the walls of stone that weave around her symbolize female imprisonment, inspired by the knowledge that architectural constructions reflect concepts that define cultures and that the earliest constructions were of stone. “Dominion” speaks to the walling in of women by ideas, traditions, beliefs, and prejudices that have been perpetuated through the ages. These notions often conflict with basic human rights, and they have kept women from achieving their full potential as creative and productive human beings.

 

Kathleen Shaver, 2013