Pathway - Hands

Pathway Phase - Response To Italy

Hands

While the conflation of dolls with the objectification of women is a very familiar idea, I wanted to focus specifically on hands.

I wanted to work with the idea of women's contributions being undervalued, especially in Catholic communities where gender roles are strictly imposed by certain interpretations of the Bible.

Hands are very important to our sensory perception of the world. 

They are like a doorway between our external and internal worlds, for most of us they are the primary way we enact our will by manipulating and interpreting the physical realm around us.


They are used with Ouija boards to communicate with dead spirits, they are pressed together in prayer to communicate with Holy spirits.

I've felt constrained by family ideas of what women have to offer and how we should behave, so I initially visualised the hands escaping from a birdcage. I was encouraged to sit with the idea and I did some free form / brainstorm writing on the back of a Wetherspoons menu one evening which yielded some interesting results!

The phrase "The Devil Makes Work For Idle Hands" popped into my head. This was a pivotal moment where new ideas began to develop.

 My research also featured folk lore connected to fertility symbols and wishing or praying to water spirits. The tension between Celtic cultures where women held a higher status than their Roman counterparts has, I feel, contributed to the subjugation of fertility as a creative force worthy of respect and Divine status. 

When I juxtaposed that with the sale of indulgences prior to the Reformation, and the existence of Magdalen Laundries in Ireland, my idea completely changed.