Photographic Concept by Bettina WitteVeen
Installation Concept by Robert Wilson
SACRED SISTER
Ancient myth and state-of-the-art photography are interwoven in this arresting meditation on timeless female power. During an extraordinary eight-year-project, Bettina WitteVeen took her camera to remote Southeast locales, including jungles of Bali, Burma and Vietnam, to find the face of ancient myth in the people of today. Her epic series of photographs embraces dynamic themes from Greek mythology (The Three Fates, Amazons, Hecate and Medusa) and Buddhism (the cult of Tara).
“‚Sacred Sister‘ offers a very personal odyssey, and an unforgettable experience. Through Bettina WitteVeen’s powerful photographs, the reader/viewer is welcomed into a timeless meditation on the divine in human form. These haunting, beautiful images of women and girls from very different walks of life […] serve as ciphers of states of spirituality, but also as invitations to heightened consciousness. At a time when so much photography addresses unvarnished reality or decorative stagecraft, WitteVeen’s works amply reward us in their paradoxical blend of the authentic and the supernatural.”
— Maxwell L. Anderson, Alice Pratt Brown Director, Whitney Museum of American Art
Installation Drawings by Robert Wilson
The Three Fates
Three old and formidable women also referred to as the Moirae and Parcae, or Narns in Norse mythology. They are the personification of inescapable destiny that applies to gods as well as men. Clotho represents that which was, Atropos that which is and Lachesis that which will be. Together they spin the thread of life.
Amazons
Society of woman warriors whose kingdom was believed to be to the north of the civilized world, and who tolerated men only as servants or as father of female children. They cut off one breast in order to accommodate a bow and arrow. Their deity is Artemis, goddess of the hunt. They fought several battles against the Greeks. The Amazon river was named after them by Gaspar de Carvajal, who believed to have entered their land when he encountered some ferocious looking tribal women in the river’s estuary in 1542.
Medusa
Victim of metamorphosis by Athena, goddess of the intellect, Medusa became the victimizer by turning all who look at her into stone. She was a young princess, who was very proud of her blond hair. Medusa was either seduced or raped by Poseidon, god of the ocean and symbol of chaos in Athena's temple. Athena was so offended by this sacrilege that she punished her by turning Medusa’s blonde locks into seven withering black snakes. Athena helped Perseus kill Medusa with the aid of a shield and a mirror. Athena put Medusa's head on her aegis. At the moment of her beheading Medusa gave birth to the white winged horse Pegasus and to Chrysaor. Two vials of her blood were taken: one was poison and the other mankind’s first medicine.
Kali Hecate
Consort to Shiva in Vedic mythology, Kali represents the principle of destruction. She is mostly depicted as dancing and trampling on the body of her husband. Our age is the time of Kali Yuga, the age of iron when the world is ruled by dissention and war and greed. It is the final stage of contraction of the universe.
Hecate can be seen as the Greek equivalent of Kali. She is a Titaness associated with the occult and the world of Shades. Hecate is a Shamaness, who at night sends forth demons and spectral beings, and, like the religious fanatics, who as part of worshipping Kali, she too preys on travellers. Hecate walks with the disembodied, and can change her appearance to seduce any lover of her choosing.
Tara
The female Buddha and personification of all encompassing compassion Tara is also referred to as Guan Yin in China, and Quan An in Vietnam. She is a major Buddhist deity credited with tremendous powers who will come to the aid to anyone invocating her name or mantra. Tara is also considered to be the mother not only of humankind, but of all sentient beings not only of this world, but of all the worlds that ever were, that are, and that will be. Her heart is said to be the pulse of time, and her life is the cosmic dream.
