RACHEL RIGGS explores the swirling relationship between the sea and femininity in her new exhibition Between the Devil & the Deep C.
The ocean has played a big part in Riggs’ life – she has Maltese heritage, grew up in the English seaside town of Blackpool, and now lives beside Fremantle.
As she’s got older, her view of the idyllic seaside has changed.
“There’s a beautiful view of the flowing ocean and the views that we love, which is full of nostalgia, or a more dystopian image of how our lives are changing with the seas rising and global warming,” she says.
“And this kind of juxtaposes with a place of holiday relaxation. It’s a place of pleasure, but we also use islands to imprison people as well to detain them.”
• Some of the great artworks by Rachel Riggs in Between the Devil & the Deep C.
Folklore
All these salty-sweet memories bubble to the surface in the collage and large scale paper sculptures in Between the Devil & the Deep C.
One of the highlights of the exhibition is a sprawling installation about the “bride ship”. In 1863, 50 young women from Preston in the northwest of England were brought over to Fremantle on the ship Tartar. Their role – to become “vessels” and provide future generations for the colony.
“They were placed as soon as possible into respectable situations as wives,” Riggs says
“Many of them formed relationships on the boat with the crew and there’s a whole story about six crew members who absconded.
“Some came back to the boat, but others fought for the right to stay with the women, so they could start families and lives in WA.”
Femmage
The exhibition also draws an analogy between the “disrespect” shown towards the ocean with pollution and off-shore developments, and the way women have been treated over the years.
“Paradise becomes perilous,” says Riggs.
“This place, for a hundred years or more, has been the land of milk and honey from the British point of view. Is it going to be much longer?
“I’m provoking these questions, but in a very subtle way.”
One of the larger sculptures at the exhibition, Madonna of the Bleached Corals, will be on show at Paddle for the Planet at Point Walter on Sunday November 30.
Riggs uses upcycled materials in her works and recently got back into papier-mâché. She first started experimenting with it when she was in Italy in her 20s.
“It’s very weak and malleable when it’s wet but when it dries you get this really amazing strength and I like that symbolism,” Riggs says.
“Things are torn apart but they come back together stronger. It’s a nice symmetry with the femmage.”
The exhibition also taps into the folklore, mystery and contradiction of gender in the maritime world. Boats were often named after women, the ocean is often refereed to as ‘she’, and busts of woman adorned the prows of old ships. But they also had a sinister connotation.
“There’s a whole paradox between the beauty and sensualness of female figures of the ocean, like mermaids and sirens, but also luring sailors to death. So there’s elements that look at that kind of complexity of relationships, really, with the female image.”
Forming part of the exhibition, will be the Jane Hammonds film Corals Last Stand.
Between the Devil & the Deep C is at Moores Building Art Space, 46 Henry St Fremantle from December 11-21. For more info see yardworks.wordpress.com.
by STEPHEN POLLOCK