SPIRITUAL ECOFEMINISM AND PATRIARCHAL GODS:
THE ART OF BILGE FRIEDLAENDER, HELÈNE AYLON AND JOAN JONAS

Conference registration required

109th CAA Annual Conference (complete program)
February 10–13, 2021; recorded sessions available through March 15

Chair: Monika Fabijanska
Presenters:
Mira Friedlaender, Director, Bilge Friedlaender’s Estate
Bilge Friedlaender’s Cedar Forest
Rachel Federman, Ph.D., Associate Curator, The Morgan Library & Museum
On the Path: Helène Aylon’s Earth Ambulance (1982) and two sacs en route (1985)
Jovana Stokic, Ph.D., School of Visual Arts
Emergent Ecologies in the Works of Joan Jonas

The recognition by pioneer ecofeminist artists that Western patriarchal philosophy and religions have served to subordinate and exploit both women and nature is particularly resonant in the era of #MeToo Movement and climate change. This session will discuss three alternative approaches to ecofeminist critique of patriarchal religious or mythological systems.

In her 1980s works about Gilgamesh, Bilge Friedlaender (1934-2000) exposed the motif of the Sumerian king cutting the sacred cedar forest in quest for fame. Her questioning of the myth of the male hero corresponds to Helène Aylon’s (1931-2020) ecofeminist activist projects, rooted in the critique of the Torah as a patriarchal system of belief, and of gender roles in Judaism.  Joan Jonas (b.1936), working from myths, has creatively transformed roles assigned to women in society since the 1970s, predating the theory of gender performativity. In Moving Off the Land II (2019), she transformed the role of a Witch into its enlightened version of a Guide/Teacher that women can play in postmodernity—when both gender roles and speciesism have been questioned. 

This session aligns with both the Committee on Women in the Arts 50/50 Initiative and the CAA's 2021 theme of climate crisis.

Image: Joan Jonas, Moving Off the Land II, 2019, video still, courtesy of the artist