death and the maiden: part two

buried from Colleen Allen on Vimeo.

Death and the Maiden: Part 2 Through Catholic tradition, women are taught that our bodies and the decisions regarding them are not our own. Eve was created through the rib of Adam, and therefore, man has a say in what happens to the female body. Today, the decisions made by male authority figures in regards to pregnancy seem to treat the health of the woman as secondary. Ultimately, the Catholic Church’s need to enforce doctrine causes the deconstruction and decay of the female form. I represented this decay by burying my own gown in a forest. After the gown had endured rain, snow, and heat, I unearthed it six months later to examine the affects of the decay. The gown was covered in mud, and plants were growing from its hem. As I pulled it from the ground, I found the gown had come apart at the seams. The lining was separated from the outer shell, the top and bottom were now two pieces, and even the the zipper and ruffle straps were completely detached. In this exercise, death is the earth, and the gown is the maiden. As the gown is pulled from the earth, the destructive affects death has on the maiden are revealed.