Maiden, Mother and Crone

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Sylvie Bart, "Princess Sadie," 2020

mixed media on wood, 10" x 10". Photo: Kristina Campbell

Artful: The Gallery's Summer Show, Maiden, Mother, and Crone, features a select collection of local Vancouver Island women artists. The uniting theme of the show is the historical archetype of the Triple Goddess, who is made-up of the maiden, the mother and the crone.

Each artist in this show and each piece of art somehow touches upon the Triple Goddess - an archetype that can be found across mythologies, space and time. The first stage of the Triple Goddess is that of the maiden - the young, virginal, unmarried woman. The second is that of the mother - the child-bearing, middle-aged, care-taking woman. And the third is that of the crone - the elderly, wise, and sometimes denigrated, mystical woman. The maiden, the mother and the crone, which together form the archetype of the Triple Goddess, represent the limited choice women have historically had in how they are seen by society and in how they see themselves.

The tropes of the maiden, the mother and the crone are as imaginary as they are real. They at once dominate human art and culture and real social patterns that play out across many human societies. Carl Jung identifies the maiden, the mother and the crone as socio-culturally constructed behaviour and belief structure. And no matter how constructed this triad might be, the consequences and realness of these characterizations have been well-understood by women across places and time since the beginning of human societies.

Focusing on women artists, this show explores the diverse stages of womanhood and the junctions and transition points that take a woman from one stage to the next. The artists ask their audience, what does it mean to be a woman? What do we make of the archetypes of the maiden, the mother and the crone?

Given that many, if not most, historical representations of women have been mediated and controlled by the male gaze, it is meaningful to actively seek new shapes and designs and representations of women across all forms of art. And as women have gained, in some parts of the world, greater autonomy to create and design their own representations of womanhood and women, how have images of women changed?

Maiden, Mother, and Crone showcases the voices and works of these women artists, who rigorously and curiously examine what it means to look like a woman, to feel like a woman or to be a woman. So come stop by this summer and watch as women take over the walls of Artful: The Gallery.

In collaboration with the Comox Valley Transition Society this exhibition is fundraising to support Lilli House which provides transitional housing for women and children escaping domestic abuse. Several artists have donated works which are being auctioned off, and Artful: The Gallery will contribute 25% of agent fees to Lilli House through August 13th.