'Wolhaarstories' by Rosemarie Marriott
by Robyn Sassen
Marriott's extraordinary body of work 'Wolhaarstories' at Gordart is horrifying, not only in its explicit confrontation with farm-based and male-centred issues of animal castration, husbandry and trophies, but in terms of her use of the teddy bear for this purpose. And herein lies its potency. The gallery is filled with an assortment of fifty bears, each built with careful attention to detail along the Victorian pattern and tradition of bear-making. But these are no playthings.
A trophy is mounted on one wall, its arms and legs spread-eagled and flattened. It has hooves in place of paws. Its large head lies ponderously on its fully quilted chest. This is not a representation of the restful stupor of a hunted wild beast. This creature embodies a palpable sense of evil. Another stands at a jaunty angle, its crotch thrust forward. Hard coarse hair adorns its chest. Like the other bears on show, it has no eyes, its neck and arms are articulated, but there is no doubt about its gender or its malevolence.
A small bear is mounted to a wall. The fur around what would be its genital area, disrupted. There is a bear with horns, another with hooves. A bear with a bald patch on the lower part of its abdomen. Some bears have thick, hairy tails. One has fingers. Two have nipples. There are rocking bears�horse-like, monkey-like, provocatively posed, their fur spilling over into the rockers. There are bears on high chairs, the fur covering bear and chair like a creeper.
What is striking is the silence in which they exist. As though they're frozen in time, caught in some kind of social headlights. The gallery room on the right, could be described as being filled with a bunch of teddy bears but each seemed the embodiment of a secret narrative that belies its play-thing origins, with its tradition of cuddliness and comfort.
Marriott's work stands its ground with audacity and complexity, forever subverting the image for the bear softened by Victorian convention into a cuddly teddy. In this exhibition, she confronts abjection and horror, pain and brokenness with sophistication and beauty.
May 29 - June 11, 2005
Gordart at the Thompson Gallery
78 Third Ave, Melville, Johannesburg
Tel: (011) 726 3519
Email: gordart@hotmail.com
Website: www.gordart@art.co.za
Hours: Wed - Sat 10.30 - 6pm
