Sally Fine
She of Seafoam, 2000, glass, shells, mortar, metal, 72" x 62" x 12"
The cruciform mermaids draw on the idea of the martyr sacrificed for the sins of man. There is terror and wonder in her power; she is the hybrid reminder of the possibility of man coexisting with nature. The early mariner's myths of these elusive creatures are perhaps prophetic tales of extinction (disappearance), ours and theirs. The irony is that I consider man to be the monster, who "paved paradise and put up a parking lot." *
These women of the deep bear an armor (or skin) of shells, mortar and glass. The shattered glass is inspired by the rough mosaics of Antonio Gaudi, the Catalan mystic whose architecture used the model of organic growth literally. I purposely used the most mundane shells, the broken ones usually thrown back to the sea. These rough shells contain the real narrative of the sea and bear an astounding beauty which eclipses that of the ornamental shells.
