An exhibition curated by Hettie Judah at the Carl Freedman Gallery
Exhibition open Wednesday - Sunday 12pm - 5pm
Preview 22nd February 5pm - 8pm
Featuring works by Ingrid Berthon-Moine, Isis Dove-Edwin, Emma Franks, Alexis Hunter, Tamsin Morse, Helen Sargeant and a tribute to Mary Beth Edelson.
Gate of Horns is a celebration of female defiance, from Lilith to Gisèle Pelicot. This is an exhibition of unruly objects, unstable bodies and stories ripe for retelling. Some are fierce and funny. Some might make you cry. Looking back to feminist foremothers involved in the Goddess Movement (with all the discomfort that inspires), Gate of Horns turns to mythic figures and ritual objects as sources of hope and power in our own time.
Gate of Horns was shaped by the autumn of 2024: the trial, in France, of 51 men accused of raping Gisèle Pelicot while she was drugged and unconscious, and the election, in the US, of a misogynist regime led by a sexual predator.
I had been thinking about the goddess movement, a spiritual tendency within second wave feminism. There is much about the goddess movement that inspires discomfort, then and now, but it performed an important role. For women who had been sexually assaulted, abused, judged and belittled, stories of a matriarchal society of goddess worshippers were empowering.
Our cultures are founded not only on the stones of temples, but on the myths we tell – of floods and gardens, demons and warriors. Myths are unstable, always available for retelling. Like the matriarchal tales of the goddess movement, they can offer hope and strength that is otherwise in short supply. Gate of Horns is an exercise in mythic thinking.
Free Entry
Address
Gate of Horns: Myths of Resistance, Symbols of Defiance
Carl Freedman Gallery, 28 Union Crescent, Margate, Kent
CT9 1NS
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