Seasons of a Woman Exhibition
Our Bodies, Our Lives & 12 Moments of Renewal
Photographs from the Exhibition Opening Events at Centrespace Gallery
Bristol, 20-23 September 2015
photographs by Emma Lazenby
This collective exhibition crowned a year-long cycle that saw 12 women step forward, one by one, and month after month, to reveal her personal body map and story of renewal (view all by scrolling down).
After monthly displays from September 2014 to August 2015 at the Red Earth Studio in Bristol all 12 of us came together at Centrespace Gallery in Bristol to exhibit our life-size art which marks and celebrates a moment of profound change. A moment in which our identity as women shifts and re-awakens in our body to a fuller expression of who we are, what we do and what we have to say.
Deeply connected to the natural seasons, to physical, emotional and spiritual cycles as well as our culture(s) and society at large, Seasons of a Woman beautifully reveals how, deep down, we as women live in and through our bodies today.
12 Women & 12 Months – Mapping the Seasons of our Bodies and Lives
September 2014 – August 2015
This exhibition brings together 12 women, our body maps and our stories of dropping deeper into the landscape of our bodies and lives. To take stock, to discover anew, to unearth the old.
Each woman’s life size body map depicts a moment in time, often at the threshold to another phase in her life. It has been created over one or several weekends through a process that combines body meditation, movement, touch and art making in an intimate circle of women.
What unfolds collectively is the ever present cycle of coming to life, blossoming, maturing, dying and rebirthing. The art works and stories – exhibited one by one over the course of one year – beautifully reveal what it means to be living this cycle in and through our bodies.
Month after month, season after season.
The following body maps are displayed in reverse order, with the latest month at the top. For previous months please scroll down.
Seasons of a Woman
AUGUST – Coming and Going
by Annette Schwalbe
My Body Map Story
I keep it all in white. Frosted, soft, ethereal. I print with fallen feathers and bones as I put to rest my responsibilities as a therapist and let go what had become too much. Often I feel dizzy: What is it that I am turning towards? What if there is nothing and it is just a tale of loss?
Read Annette’s full story about her Body Map here >
JULY – Woman of Earth
by Sue Curtis
My Body Map Story
The woman of earth waited for a long time, in silence, barely moving, just listening to the silence until, almost imperceptivity she reached out her hand and touched the earth and arching back she opened her soul.
Read Sue’s full story about her Body Map here >
JUNE – Behind the Veil
by Rafaela
My Body Map Story
Behind the veil means for me, that when I cover my face and eyes by the veil, I do not see what I do not want to see and also I am not seen and recognized when I need it. It is a kind of protection, which I did not have as a child.
Read Rafaela’s full story about her Body Map here >
MAY – A Love Story
by Christina Greenland
One side….
….and the other side
My Body Map Story
You arrive.
And I go under your skin,
Trace the constellations of your body,
Hear the pounding of your heart,
Feel the warmth of your hands in mine.
And with my breath I give life to you while you fill my lungs with air.
Read Christina’s full story about her Body Map here >
APRIL – Broken heart
by Penelope Best
My Body Map Story
Uncovering a Broken heart when searching for healing
Searching for soothing of physical organ,
Pumping erratically stretched beyond capacity
Yet instead…bumping up against the heart itself broken
The yearning broken heart of disconnection and loss
Read Penelope’s full story about her Body Map here >
MARCH – Stir It Up
by Ruth Love
My Body Map Story
this power is buried deep in the girdle of my hips,
in the sacred grove of my womb,
I have been searching for a way
to reach it, touch it, for years, yet,
now I have caught a glimpse of the bloody depths,
reached in and stirred the cauldron up
it frightens me. so much potential is there,
can I really let it out?
Read Ruth’s full story about her Body Map here >
FEBRUARY – Beginning
by Andrea Wright
My Body Map Story
The work begins here, deepening with the heat of attending moment by moment to the images and intuition of the body. A baby’s head arrives, where I form her in clay; her heavy, cool skin soothes the heat in my eye. What message does she have for me?
Read Andrea’s full story about her Body Map here >
JANUARY – Self
by Samiel Carolina Rodriguez Barros
My Body Map Story
The journey felt important and somehow sacred right from the beginning. The first visualisation planted a seed that started to grow in my “belly-moon” … announcing that a new SELF was going to be born after this weekend.
Read Samiel Carolina’s full story about her Body Map here >
DECEMBER – Honouring the Element of Water
by Emma Scott
My Body Map Story
In yet another body meditation I could feel my strength rising and receding with the sense of water, like waves pulling back and forth, moving from darkness to bright sunlight. With the memory of the physical experience of floating and feeling buoyant under my back, it was like being in the womb, and here I could finally feel my deep pain residing. The pain of my very first separation: a forceful projection away from a heavenly place.
Read Emma’s full story about her Body Map here >
NOVEMBER – Cailleach (Crone Goddess)
by TFC
My Body Map Story
Women Glow
In near history
I was incarcerated when pregnant
Or
Impregnated every ovulation
Women cannot glow here
This ancestral trauma passes down
But
My rage lights up deeper truths
I am also the ancient Cailleach
Mother of all tribes
I roam with dagger in hand
Keeping all humanity safe
Peace and spiritual wisdom reappears
I stay vigilant
My body pulsates as
Women glow
To the Om of the universe.
Read T’s full story about her Body Map here >
OCTOBER – Transfiguration
by Natasha S
My Body Map Story
Every fingerprint of paint became a new discovery of who I am, as did every colour, every texture and every curve. My hair felt like a mane of power untamed, released and free. I could feel my energy moving, shifting around, even dancing around inside my body. I felt vibrant within and I understood why I wasn’t afraid. I was, in fact, excited. My life was changing shape but so was I.
Read Natasha’s full story about her Body Map here >
SEPTEMBER – Sculptured Integration, Renewal and Female Power
by Laura Forman
My Body Map Story
Whoever looks upon this: Where does your eye travel? What do you see? Does the map find you?
All our internal maps are unique and beautiful, they never stay the same. They are lost and renewed at different times of our lives, just as the rivers and mountains change with the passing millennia, or as man carves his way into the earth for some purpose.
Trust what is revealed and speak to it.
Read Laura’s full story about her Body Map here >
