Set Ablaze
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"Set Ablaze,” new work by Debra Lott, features figurative paintings that empower women and reflect upon the human experience through socially conscious themes, communicating human values and emotions. The exhibit highlights marginalized women, specifically redheads, who make up 1% of the population and often face bullying or 'gingerism.' Select paintings address current issues affecting women’s reproductive health, including in-vitro fertilization and birth control.
These two paintings explore the clash between past traditions and contemporary issues in women's reproductive health. By blending Victorian elements with modern symbols, they emphasize the absurdity of current threats to women's rights. These works make a statement about the dangers of rolling back women's rights to a bygone era.
In "Back to the Future, In-Vetro," the Victorian setting of antique chair and dress contrasts sharply with the modern sneakers. Her pose highlights her defiance. The petri dish with a chicken egg emphasizes the impossibility and irrationality of trying to control reproduction through outdated or inappropriate means.
"Throw Back, 1864" also uses historical imagery to critique contemporary issues. The pink apron and "Handmaid's Tale" bonnet symbolize the regression of women's rights, while the feminist symbol and modern pink hair color express resistance. The "choices" of reproductive rights on the dinner plate suggest that these rights are being served up as mere options rather than fundamental freedoms. The open windows in the background create a lack of privacy, alluding to the ongoing surveillance and control over women's bodies.
Tangled Threads
Theme: Identity and Gender
To thread one’s way is defined as: to thread or move through a passage or in-between obstacles. Our ancestors’ values and beliefs are often obstacles that have impacted our identity; the series, Tangled Threads, reveals a visual poetry of connective threads between historic cultures and contemporary women. The paintings juxtapose modern women and symbols of their ancestors’ traditions, values and beliefs. Lott depicts two worlds in a whimsical style with bright colors creating an ironic portrayal of the past and the present.
In the painting, Cotton Threads, the symbolic threads encircling and entangling a contemporary black woman, include the cotton plant, the confederate flag, African textile patterns and yellow ribbons symbolizing and forming the bonds and chains of slavery.
Apron Strings places a contemporary woman in the 1950’s wrapped in her apron strings connected with clothes pins and diaper pins. ‘Tied to the Apron Strings’ was an expression from the early 1800’s attributed to a law that allowed a husband to control his wife’s property during her life time.