The Ancient Gaze

Sally Blake’s textile and paper-based works relate to the themes of death and renewal, regeneration and the possibility of transformation. The Ancient Gaze brings the ancient wisdom embodied in Palaeolithic European female figurines into conversation with contemporary environmental concerns. This exhibition developed around an image of the Venus of Dolni Vestonice, her generative body symbolising cycles of death and renewal that have been maintained from her time to ours. Archaeologist Marija Gimbutas determined the 30,000-year-old Venus to be one of many figurines that represent the Mother Goddess. The original figurine is 11cm high; drawn at human-scale, she meets the eye of the viewer, and they, her gaze. Tears stream from her eyes, perhaps a divine source of water or perhaps a lament for what she sees; tears as she witnesses human-induced climate change that threatens the cyclic patterns she embodies.