The exhibition Rebis is a reflection on the ephemeral and ambivalent sexuality of biblical figures in art focusing on the Medieval period. Its central element – a painting of St. Wilgefortis from ca. 1500 – features a princess with a beard. This unlikely historical representation results from a Medieval legend about a “courageous virgin” (Latin: “virgo fortis”) forced to marry against her own will. Longing to devote her life to Christ instead, she prays to be made repulsive, which God answers by growing her a beard. The image of the crucified St. Wilgefortis intersects with representations of Christ; thus intensifying the shape of androgynous icon.
Postma’s work New Clothes translates the temporality inscribed in images of Christ into a sequence of purple window curtains. The curtain’s fabric is sequentially thinner as one moves through the exhibition space. The ‘thinning out’ sensuously alludes to the way that the image of the infant Christ was gradually but radically refashioned in the Renaissance.
The sculpture Rise of the Nuns attests to the way that sexuality has been latent in utilities for centuries. The sculpture is made of antique roof tiles historically referred to as Nun and Monk, which pertained their form from being moulded on a human thigh. In roofings, the bottom tiles were called Nuns and the tiles covering them were called Monks. Postma’s sculpture places the tiles in the same pattern, but with the axes turned, thereby placing the Nuns on equal footing with the Monks.
Dissecting, isolating and revealing identities in Christian visual culture, Rebis (from Latin “res bina”, meaning dual or double matter) simultaneously emphasises the role of emotions as transmitters of visceral memory. In the exhibition’s last room stands an isolated statue of Virgin Mary from the 15th century in a lamenting pose. Postma confronts her expression of grief turning her face to the light which comes through the last window, left uncovered.
Curated by Barbara Reil at Stadtmuseum Lindau.
Text: Elena Vogman
The exhibition Rebis is a reflection on the ephemeral and ambivalent sexuality of biblical figures in art focusing on the Medieval period. Its central element – a painting of St. Wilgefortis from ca. 1500 – features a princess with a beard. This unlikely historical representation results from a Medieval legend about a “courageous virgin” (Latin: “virgo fortis”) forced to marry against her own will. Longing to devote her life to Christ instead, she prays to be made repulsive, which God answers by growing her a beard. The image of the crucified St. Wilgefortis intersects with representations of Christ; thus intensifying the shape of androgynous icon.
Unfolding the observed polarities in Christian iconography, Postma’s work New Clothes translates the temporality inscribed in images of Christ into a sequence of purple window curtains. The curtain’s fabric is sequentially thinner as one moves through the exhibition space. The ‘thinning out’ sensuously alludes to the way that the image of the infant Christ was gradually but radically refashioned in the Renaissance.
The sculpture Rise of the Nuns attests to the way that sexuality has been latent in utilities for centuries. The sculpture is made of antique roof tiles historically referred to as Nun and Monk, which pertained their form from being moulded on a human thigh. In roofings, the bottom tiles were called Nuns and the tiles covering them were called Monks. Postma’s sculpture places the tiles in the same pattern, but with the axes turned, thereby placing the Nuns on equal footing with the Monks.
Dissecting, isolating and revealing identities in Christian visual culture, Rebis (from Latin “res bina”, meaning dual or double matter) simultaneously emphasises the role of emotions as transmitters of visceral memory. In the exhibition’s last room stands an isolated statue of Virgin Mary from the 15th century in a lamenting pose. She covers her mouth with a veil, crying. Postma confronts her expression of grief turning her face to the light which comes through the last window, left uncovered.
Curated by Barbara Reil at Stadtmuseum Lindau.
Text: Elena Vogman