Exhibition on womanhood and power throughout history

The work by Anna Alcock, Linda Green, Kirsten Schmidt and Yaniré Sylva Delgado draws on the idea of the Witches’ Sabbath, Akelarre in English or Aquelarre in Spanish.

Artist Anna Alcock says: “Since having breast cancer and the soul-searching that followed my mastectomy, I have been on a personal pilgrimage to rediscover what being a woman is. I wanted to understand why the removal of my breast, which had served its purpose, was so traumatic, why I so worried about continuing to be seen as feminine and beautiful, and how to square my experience with art history – all those archetypal ‘beauties’ with gorgeous breasts, such as Titian’s ‘Venus’ and Delacroix’s ‘Victory’.

“My contribution to Aquelarre celebrates the power of women and of witchcraft. I’ve delved into African shamanism and Zulu ideas about witch-doctors or ‘sangomas’. The practice of ancestor worship feeds into my own fears about dying and not leaving a legacy for my children. I’m interested in the humanist, secular belief that the way we live on is through our children and their memories of us.”

Of her own work Linda Green adds: “In my own work, I explore how life experiences form the sediment of our lives and create the layers of our personal history. More broadly than that, in this exhibition, how the lives, experiences and artefacts of a people form the rich sedimentary layers of our communities. Time and place have particular atmospheres, associations and sensations. Symbols, myths and rituals act as containers that help give shape and meaning to our experiences.

“I’m interested in the relationship between the temporal and the cyclical, the tangible and intangible, the enduring and the ephemeral, the random and the intentional. I am fascinated by the   idea of the layering of life over life as recorded in artefacts, documents and photographs, all of which may degrade over time. Stories and memories too, though subject to simplification or embellishment nonetheless bear witness to lives unremarked but not unremarkable.”

The display, 4 Women in Aquelarre, is inspired by the famously and disturbingly imagined Sabbath by Goya in Los Caprichos, and long associated with rebellion, transgression, the reality of persecution and the power of ritual.

Kirsten Schmidt explains: “I will also be showing work that explores ideas about ancestor worship and the importance of ritual particularly inspired by the Ghanaian feather headdresses in the Horniman Museum collection. These were worn in village festivals to get in touch with the community’s ancestors, who in return would offer the community protection of their members and crops. I loved the idea and simple usefulness of such a ritual and it made me notice the loss of ritual in our society. In one work I’ve screen printed photographs of ‘ancestral figures’ onto feathers to make a feather installation which I imagine could protect our community in E17.

“I’ll also be showing a number of small pots inspired by similar pots in the British Museum exhibition The Romans in Egypt. Found in many cemeteries, these contained ‘spells’, or wishes that the writer hoped spirits would make come true. It was a powerful reminder of how through the ages and across different cultures people have yearned for protection and guidance. In the exhibition I’ll be inviting people to write down their own wishes or spells, and to place them in my pots. Before the exhibition I’ll be holding a workshop in Camp One Café in Berlin, a café run by men and women with a refugee background. The clay pots produced in the workshop will be part of the exhibition.”

In Burial Project or Proyecto Enterramientos Yaniré Sylva Delgado has made books, prints and ceramics to express her identity, culture and values as an Ecuadorian woman and artist. She has explored issues of guilt and morality and has looked at burial ceremonies and the ways in which we seek peace through closure.

“I am mestiza (mixed race) and I grew up in a country where economic instability has been a tradition. A country troubled by foreign values and economies, first the Spanish and then the US. In 2001 I had the opportunity to work with three museums on the Ecuadorian coast and I found some of the roots lost in miscegenation.”

Yaniré has made five books. The first presents pictures from burials uncovered by archaeological excavations; the second explores the burial of guilt in Roman Catholicism; the third offers redemption; the fourth opens the project to the public by asking the question: how do you want to be buried? The fifth book incorporates images from the famous Guayaquil Cemetery in Ecuador.

“Closure is fundamental in our lives because it allow us to move on. Burial Project has allowed me to grow from the place of pain and frustration so the last piece of work I propose for this exhibition will involve the community, the place where I am now and where I belong. In workshops I will ask the public to create a Venus Valdivia who will represent our growth and hopes in life.”

In embracing mystery and darkness both internal and external 4 Women in Aquelarre invites the viewer to figuratively descend into the underworld, to recognize the depth of feminine wisdom and the knowing of the body, to reflect on the meaning to be found in stories and ritual, to value and celebrate creativity and to contemplate the transforming power of pain and loss.

Winns Gallery, Lloyd Park, Walthamstow, E17 5JW, May 4 to 13.