Siona Benjamin "Lilith in the New World"
Flomenhaft
This event has ended.
Siona Benjamin was attracted to the character of Lilith to portray her heroine in this series of works. Included are over thirty paintings of gouache and gold leaf on board, several constructions and an installation. Based on Jewish Midrashic literature, the character, Lilith, is identified as the first Eve, created from the earth at the same time as Adam. According to lore, she was unwilling to forego her equality with Adam and demanded sexual equality. Rebuffed by Adam, she took her case to God, who responded to her seductive powers by revealing His divine name. Speaking His name out loud earned her the ticket out of Pardes or Paradise and into eternal exile. Since then, Lilith has represented the mother of demons, of corruption, of indulgence, slayer of newborns, the serpent in the Garden of Eden and the seductress of men.
Lilith has made her return in feminist history many times as an iconic symbol that represents the oppressed, as a goddess and example of female strength, power and mystery. Bringing her forth today, for Benjamin she becomes the woman targeted, the sacrificing mother, the mourning war widow, the brave woman soldier, and the violated rape victim in war. She cries out at injustice after “A Thousand Years of Waiting.” “Where is peace, justice, freedom, and equality?” She asks.
Pop artist, Roy Lichtenstein, and the drama of the Indian Amar Chitra Katha comics serve as inspiration for the Lilith series. Indian/Persian miniatures and Jewish and Christian illuminated manuscripts also creep into parts of the paintings. The blond heroine in Licthtenstein’s paintings has been recast as a blue maiden. Benjamin’s Lilith dons symbols from many faiths. The snake armband in several paintings perhaps symbolizes Hinduism, the head covering turns into a tallit (a Jewish Prayer shawl), the hamsa may be the hand of Fatima, her bullet wound or a stigmata.
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Schedule
from October 23, 2008 to December 13, 2008