The Empress Reversed
embroidery on hand-dyed linen
36 x 56 in
2020
$12,000, Framed
“The Empress Reversed” (embroidery on hand-dyed linen, 36 x 56 in, 2020) — a reference to tarot cards, more specifically, the Empress card, which generally embodies themes of feminine energy, fertility, and motherhood. In tarot readings, “reversals” are often interpreted as the “lower polarity” sometimes representing the opposite of a card. So in the case of the Empress card, an Empress reversed may represent infertility, lack or loss of feminine energy, etc.
I carefully composited a pose that references religious portrayals of the Mother Mary holding Jesus. In my piece, however, the addition of an infant figure is absent — the figure is depicted alone, void of her bottom half, and looks down at her empty arm. As in my earlier works, the blurring of lines between fertility/infertility, as well as religious and pagan theory/mythology visually manifests, invoking the viewer to interpret the significance and meaning with limited visual context.