Gallery_Driven

Pure as the driven Snow | Each fence: 480’x 4’

1992 - Two painted snow fences. One lists the litany of the Virgin while the other lists the litany of Virginia Slims. Stenciled on the painted slats are phrases enumerating the burden of impossible expectations placed on woman in both religious myth and in contemporary society. The public’s shadows intermingle with the moving shadows cast on the wall by the suspended fences.

A fence protects and imprisons.
Restricts penetration...within or without.
Two fences divide the sacred and the profane.
The litany constructs a poetic enclosure for an idealized femininity.
To satisfy the demands of Faith, the Virgin remains forever cloaked in praise.
To satisfy the demands of culture, the woman forever strives for beauty.
Both are victims of the ideal.
Black and white are the colors of print.
Print sells.
Snow fencing restrains.
A spring thaw seeps into the enclosure where the Virgin and the woman share
A constructed destiny.

Mary Dritschel retains all rights to her art and installations shown on this website. No work may be copied or used in any shape or form without prior consent. Copyright 2004 Mary Dritschel. Site design: Copyright 2004 True Ideas, Inc.