June 26, 2019 - July 14, 2019
White River, South Africa
Click here to view: A Tribute to Judith Mason by Strauss & Co
TISIPHONE. She is one of the mythological Greek Furies, and known as the Avenger of Murder. A story has it that, in spite of her appellation, she killed a lover who spurned her by throwing a shake from her coiffure at him, and he died from the venom. I enjoy using the Furies as subject matter because of their female power and the opportunity to combine classically drawn features with serpentine ns. in this work i wanted to use the language of pure drowning in a visual dialogue with the idiomatic, graffiti - like snake head. Judith Mason, 2015
"Descent from the Cross" is one of my favourite subjects and / have painted several versions. This lithograph is a variant on the image / used in the Purgatorio panel of "Walking with and away from Donte". The panel describes Purgatory as a temporal condition, and is an attempt to mend the wrongs wrought by us. A self sufficient victim of crucifixion is an element in its rather complicated visual argument. Judith Mason, 2008.
"Wardrobe is the most light hearted of the prints. I love snakes, although I fear some of them, and enjoy having them as neighbours. A boomslang lived in the roof of my house for a while, scandalising the local sparrows. Every now and then i find sloughed skins, and he two which I drew for this print were still damp and beautifully upple when I found them. Making a serpentine out of an ordinary wire coat hanger, and draping the skins like clothing, amused me. Judith Mason, 2008.
"Adam" stands like o candlestick with the torso as a flame surrounded by o deliberately demanding ofter image of light, as if the viewer is blinking against the light he sees. The legs of Adam ore woven together in a vein-like plait behind his knees, to suggest that his handicaps are intrinsic to his being. Judith Mason, 2008.
"Searching for the Soul" addresses my fondness for primates and the certainty that i am closely related to them. It also expresses my belief that we cannot ever possess religious certainty, and that debates about the soul's location are both a waste of time and enormously enjoyable. The grubby pragmatism of the monkeys is in deliberate contrast to the rather facile classical head that splits apart like a pomegranate. Judith Mason, 2008.
ORACLE. This uses the mythological snake haired figure as an oracle, merging the Oracle of delphi, (the Pythoness), with the form of a Meduso or a fury. The snake heads become the heads of pliers which are capable of resolving the problematic 'wiring' in the lower part of the image. I like the idea of updating the forms of classical mythology by introducing mundane contemporary objects which pun on the original forms. Judith Mason, 2015
CLINGING TO THE EDGE OF THE PAGE. This was a chance to play with monkey forms and to use two languages, that of scrawled lines and that of conventional drawing. I also wanted to tease the viewer's suspension of belief by reminding him/her that, however lively, the image is just crayon on paper after all. Hence the title. Judith Mason, 2015