“To her fair works did Nature link. The human soul that through me ran.” Wordsworth, 1798
My work engages with themes of ‘natural’ femininity and womanhood within Romantic Literature. The idea of the natural woman was cultivated by male Romantic poets who reinforced traditional metaphorical imagery such as ‘Mother Earth’ and ‘Dame Nature’. In the domestication of the natural world, prevailing male interpretations of nature were projected onto the female form, while teachings of nineteenth-century floriography fused both symbolic and physical ideals of purity and beauty with the moral-social idea of the ‘acceptable’ woman. The assignment of feminine classifications onto the natural forces identifies Nature as her own entity.
The identity of feminine Nature is the muse to my image-making. Utilising the qualities of drawing, watercolour and papercutting, I aim to invoke a sense of antiquated femininity and fragility that is reminiscent of floral and natural phenomena. Within these old notions lie the Romantic writer’s belief that the woman may only be the muse, never the narrator or author of her own texts, a concept of which I challenge by possessing the role of Nature through use of photography; by assigning myself the part of Nature, I become both her creation and creator.
“To her fair works did Nature link. The human soul that through me ran.” Wordsworth, 1798
Mae fy ngwaith yn ymwneud â themâu benyweidd-dra a benywdod ‘naturiol’ o fewn Llenyddiaeth Ramantaidd. Magwyd delfryd y fenyw naturiol gan feirdd Rhamantaidd gwrywaidd a atgyfnerthai ddelweddaeth drosiadol draddodiadol megis y ‘Fam Ddaear a’r ‘Feistres Natur’. Yn ystod cyfaddasiad y byd naturiol, estynnwyd dehongliadau gwrywaidd cyffredinol o natur i’r ffurf fenywaidd, a chyfunodd addysg ffloriograffeg y bedwaredd ganrif ar bymtheg ddelfrydau symbolaidd a chorfforol purdeb a phrydferthwch â syniad moesol-gymdeithasol y fenyw ‘dderbyniol’. Mae aseinio dosbarthiadau benywaidd i’r grymoedd naturiol yn adnabod Natur fel ei hendid ei hun.
Hunaniaeth y natur fenywaidd yw awen gwneud fy nelweddau. Gan ddefnyddio rhinweddau darlunio, dyfrlliw a thorri papur, rwy’n ceisio peri ymdeimlad o fenyweidd-dra hynafol a bregusrwydd sy’n hel atgofion o ffenomenau blodeuol a naturiol. O fewn yr hen syniadau hyn ceir cred yr awdur Rhamantaidd mai dim ond yr awen y gall menyw fod, a byth adroddwr neu awdur ei thestunau ei hun, cysyniad yr wyf yn ei herio trwy feddu ar rôl Natur gan ddefnyddio ffotograffiaeth; trwy aseinio rhan Natur i fy hun, es i’n greadigaeth a chreawdwr iddi.
