either/or
Oil on canvas
with painted wood frame and objects
May 2002
25 x 27 inches
neither/nor
Oil on canvas
with painted wood frame and objects
May 2002
25 x 27 inches
the two marys: either/or, neither/nor
Images of the Virgin Mary and Mary Magdalene have existed since the beginnings of Christian art; these women have been held up as paragons of the female divine and their depictions often reflect standards of beauty in the time period of their creation. Typical depictions of the Virgin include the Annunciation, mothering Christ as a child, lamenting his death in the Pieta, and as the Queen of Heaven. Typical depictions of the Magdalene are ones in which she is penitent or contemplative, and also her emotive stance in the Noli Me Tangere paintings. The name Mary has a cultural index in a variety of languages, both ancient and modern. Its roots connote a range of meanings including generosity, submission, adoration, beauty, exaltation and sublimity. The Marys do not usually appear as a pair.
The juxtaposition of the Virgin and the Magdalene explores their natural affinity and the construction of the feminine as either pure or tainted. Both are Marys and each represents different aspects of the same construct, a feminine divine defined by her relationship to a male divine, Jesus Christ.
An inhibition can restrict or forbid, and, in a way, also define. "either/or" and "neither/nor" explore the traditional "western" view of women, as either innocent or corrupt, saint or sinner, virgin or whore. This gaze fits the feminine into a binary construction and acts a traditional inhibitor. At the same time, many portrayals objectify and exhibit women, no matter what their emotional affiliation, as specimens. By remaking these depictions of the Virgin Mary and the Magdalene, Tiee attempts to understand the motivations behind using these women as symbols, making them more (Goddess-like) and less (inhuman) than what they were.The Marys are framed in wood with devotional objects. Each frame acts as a shrine which houses the painting. The shrine frames function to further illuminate each Mary's similarities and differences.
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either/or Oil on canvas with painted wood frame and objects May 2002 25 x 27 inches |
neither/nor Oil on canvas with painted wood frame and objects May 2002 25 x 27 inches |
About the name Mary:
The word Mary comes from Late Latin Maria, which in turn is
from Greek Maria or Mariam, from the Hebrew Myriam
(Maryam in Aramaic, presumably the language of Mary herself). The
word Myriam is perhaps related to the East Semitic root rym,
to give, but the origin of Myriam is uncertain, it might be from
Ancient Egyptian mara "corpulent, beautiful", Ancient Egyptian
mari "beloved", or Ugaritic/Canaanite (both are NW Semitic
languages like Aramaic) mrym "exalted, sublime." Ancient Egyptian,
Hebrew, Ugaritic, Canaanite, and Aramaic are all part of the Afro-Asiatic
or Hamito-Semitic language family whose five branches are Berber, Chadic,
Cushitic, Egyptian, and Semitic.