Review: After This Our Exile

The Show

     To walk into the little gallery on the third floor of Adams Hall is to have a multi-sensory experience. Aroma, noise, music, movement, and varied textures are instantly experienced. It is a lot of sensory information, but it is not intended to shock or stun. The environment at once feels familiar and foreign. It is familiar for the materials and sounds are somewhat domestic, but there is also a deep sense of mystery. This is "After This Our Exile," a mixed media art exhibit by Wheaton College senior Jessina Leonard.

The exhibit has four primary components. Two videos play continuously and simultaneously on both ends of the gallery. Hanging between them in the middle of the room are three window screens, wooden and worn. On back wall are two large circles in the form of a Venn diagram. One circle is of cloves, the other of roofing nails pounded directly into the wall. Each of these elements are in direct communication with each other and this seamless and engaging communication is the reason the show is such a success. The show continues in a long tradition by interpreting the annunciation to Mary. In the artist's words it is about, "a reckoning of opposites - of power and vulnerability, absence and presence, joy and suffering, body and spirit - and evidence of the mysterious liminal space between these dichotomies." These tensions are portrayed in a way that critiques the platonic ideal of the spirit over the body specifically in some traditional Marian imagery. Instead, this work shows the redemption of the human body - specifically the female body. This work is feminist. It brings an "idealized and sexless" Mary back to earth and in doing so makes a critique of our society's view of the female form. Emphasizing the flesh of the female body while at once critiquing the the overemphasis of the flesh of the female body in our society is a delicate line to walk. The artist has done this by viewing the female form through the lens of the redeeming work of Christ.

The Circles

     The two circles are simple in form but rich in symbolism. The title of the piece is "Theotokos, or 280 Cloves/Nails for Every Day of Pregnancy." It is a reference to the 13th century legend of Gertrude of Helfta in which the Christ on her crucifix spoke to her in dream. Afterwards, she clutched the crucifix to her breast reminiscent of Song of Songs 1:13 "A bundle of myrrh is my well-beloved unto me; he shall lie all night betwixt my breasts." She then replaced the nails of the crucifix with cloves.

     In keeping with the feminist theme of the show, these circles are symbolic of the female form. A reference to the beauty of the female body but also a subtle critique of our society's accepted symbols of gender. One circle of cloves and one of nails. The cloves speak of the motherly love that Mary would have for Christ, but the nails are a constant reminder of what his future holds. As the title indicates, the 280 represents the 280 days in a typical human gestation period. Though minimal in nature, Jessina says much with this piece. The circle is a common symbol for the heavens, and they are in conversation with the three square shaped screens nearby which symbolize the earth. Between the two are the tension of body and spirit. At once the overlapping circles refer to Eve and Mary. Eve, while oft represented as the physical and corrupt fall of humankind, is here rejoined to Mary. While Mary, oft represented as a "sexless, idealized" queen of heaven, is rejoined with the physicality of Eve. They both sinned, and yet they both gave birth to all the world. Furthermore, this redemption is possible because of the conflation of Christ himself who also became flesh. The hypostatic union of Christ is also represented in this simple form. Mary and Eve. Mary and Christ. Eve and Christ. Christ and the church. Christ with each of us.

The Screens

The three screens are battered and worn. They stand between the two videos which play simultaneously. The screens are the mystery of the virgin birth. While the video on one wall shows the moments leading up to the annunciation, the video on the other show the moments afterwards. The videos play at once, for Mary was a virgin before the annunciation and after. However, she was of flesh. And her body, while the host for this gift to humankind, and though untouched by man's hands, she still bore the weight and pain of a normal human pregnancy. She was still a virgin, but she was not the same. Though "full of grace and mercy" she was laden down with burdens as well. There are three for they are also in conversation with the circles. Because they represent the physicality of each figure represented in the circles. The individual, physical identity if Eve, Mary, and Christ. The aged and worn side of everything represented in the circles. There is space between the screens, for they are of this world, finite.

The Videos

     The powerhouse of the exhibit are the two video clips playing on a continuous loop. Featuring two different female actors interpreting the moments leading up to and after the annunciation. Before the annunciation, the actor stands in a loft with a low vaulted ceiling. She is shown standing, sitting, and walking. Her hands touch her dress, clutching it and wrinkling it. She walks in a circle, her bare feet audible on the wooden floor. She looks up into the ceiling, the single window sheds a brilliant white light on her as if God's grace had taken the form of the sunlight. Bathed in brilliance the camera spins in circles. The moment is not comfortable. The gift of God to her above all other women and which yet includes every woman. A narrator in almost a murmur recites passages of scripture. 

    The feet get a lot of screen time in the first video, this is in keeping with the artistic tradition of Christ's feet emphasizing his humanity. The sock lines are even visible as she walks in circles, this is a physical body that is affected by and affects the world around her. The tenderness of the scene does not give way to sentimentality. There is tension. Mary is being asked to sacrifice her body, so that Christ may sacrifice his. The scriptures that we hear are going through her mind, this again keeps with the artistic tradition of Mary reading scripture at the time of the annunciation. She contemplates and feels the weight of all the covenants from the Lord to Israel. She still says yes. 

     Through the screens the other video plays post-annunciation scenes. Mary is exposed. She sits on the floor and wraps herself in her own arms grasping at her own back. The force that she uses on herself leaves red marks. Her hair covers her face as she experiences pain. Then you hear it, a baby - the baby - cries. Up to now, Mary has been alone. Now she holds the Christ child in her arms. The relief is mingled with sorrow, she knows that he will be a sacrifice. The pain continues. Over the speaker, a hammer pounds a nail methodically. Mercilessly. She wraps the child in a cloth. The bright red stripe on the cloth is a piercingly obvious prescient. Seated on a chair, she holds the babe on her lap. A sharply beautiful Pietà. Moments later, Mary sits on the floor as the camera refocuses to show us a white lily on the floor, a symbol of her purity.

The Bodies

      In addition to the rich interpretation of the story, the show also intends to comment on the female body through the depiction of the annunciation. There are two different figures that play the role of Mary, one before the annunciation and one after. One for each video. Pre-annunciation, the figure wears a loose darkly colored dress and has bare feet. The emphasis is on the feet of the figure, the hands, and the face. She looks like someone that you would meet on the street. Mary was a particular human when the angel Gabriel visited her. In the post-annunciation video the second figure is shown in various modes of dress. At first she is in undergarments, she is exposed and vulnerable. The character holds herself in an embrace feeling the skin on her own back. This a powerful foreshadowing of the stripes on Christ's back, but it is also powerful for the depiction of Mary's strength and frailty. Another of the opposites that Jessina has tried to show throughout the exhibit. She is shown again in the same dress as the other figure, to remind us that she is the same particular person that she was before the annunciation. This is emphasized by the videos playing at once. The artist has attempted to show the body with respect but also with an emphasis on Mary as a completely fleshly and fully female human. In her choice of exposure she has emphasized the physical reality of Mary and the annunciation but without divorcing the story completely from the spiritual. In fact the whole point of the story is that it is the spiritual worked out through the particular human form.

Conclusion

     After This Our Exile attempts to redeem the physical reality of the female figure through the depiction of the annunciation. This it does in a beautiful manner. It takes a gentle and sensitive touch to depict the female figure in its physicality, beauty, and shortcomings in a tasteful and wholesome way. Wholesome in that the female body is glorified whilst not worshiped and appreciated but not idealized. Mary is a wonderful way to display this, for it is a reminder that just as Mary was redeemed through Christ so can the female body be redeemed in our culture through the redeeming work of Christ. Not by ignoring the fleshy reality of the body, but by embracing it, confident in the significance of the incarnation. Am I taking the feminist emphasis away by pointing out the significance of Christ in this exhibit? No, for this work reminds us that though God became a man, his mother was a woman. A beautiful and flawed woman who bore the marks of her pregnancy just as the gallery will bear the marks of those nails in the wall.

To visit the artist's website and to see some high quality and beautiful stills from the videos, click here.