ARE YOU STILL BROKEN? - A personal piece about Brokenness, Strength and Female Objectification.
A hand carved Carrara marble sculpture with mirrored glass shard. Height 47 cm x width 84 cm x depth 39 cm and weight ca. 200 kg.
ARE YOU STILL BROKEN? is a personal - notably feminine - self-reflective and contemporary interpretation of the original sculpture La Danaide by Rodin enriched with a dimension of insightful introspection and a current social significance and meaning.
The work ARE YOU STILL BROKEN? shows a defeated modern woman - a today’s anonymous Hypermnestra also known as La Danaide - at the moment of despair lying cringed and curled up on the floor.
Only now a broken mirror glass shard is placed before her eyes, making her faceless. If one looks into the shard, one will see one’s own face where the woman's face would be. Even when looking behind the whimsical shard, her face is not visible. It remains hidden behind the sculpted hair and hand, which ensures the woman’s anonymity and makes it possible for the viewer to think oneself as the one lying there broken.
This woman is nearly naked - physically and mentally. The viewer witnesses this intense moment of emotional inner brokenness and the resulting intimate pose.
A significant detail forms the sculpted panties - by which the La Danaide sculpture is now catapulted to the present time.
Equally important is that it creates a conflict in possible feelings felt by the spectator. Two different forces are now giving conflicting signals to the viewer.
On the one hand, one can see a vulnerable broken woman for whom one can feel compassion and recognise oneself in. The sharp cut shard even more symbolises the piercing hurt.
At the same time the tiny string emphasises the buttocks and the sensuality of the posture - adding a sexual dimension to the sculpture.
Now the woman becomes vulnerable and seductive desirable at the same time. What will be the dominant feeling or value judgment of the spectator?
This conflict in evoking emotions and associations is also pursued through other forces in the work. The precious marble sculpture with the highly polished back, the fine lines regarding the pose, the smooth shoulder blades and the wavy hair, exudes a soft streamlined energy that has been made possible with the greatest attention and effort.
But suddenly there is the whimsical - worthless - illogical penetrating imperfect shard. Stuck into the polished image like a knife. A huge jammer in this balanced orchestra. A counter-movement within the artwork itself establishing a pervasive tension and expressing this antagonistic duality and complexity for women today.
Besides communicating this inner and outer conflict and creating this psychological self-reflective aesthetic image, the work clearly has a - moralistic - social meaning and message. Illustrating the unrighteous normalisation of female harassment, the complex role and the ancillary dualistic feelings of modern women, who despite all changes in society remain ‘objects of desire and seduction’ but in fact possess great inner strength. It expresses the believe that pushing men back regarding women’s safety and respect including the metoo movement was badly needed to rebalance society and create a new playing field, like healing a wound and adjust society’s code of conduct. It is not without reason that the Rodin’s sculpture La Danaide was chosen to communicate this believe…
The Greek mythological story on which Rodin's La Danaide is based, is the story of Hypernmestra, one of the fifty daughters of ancient king Danaus who arranged for his fifty daughters to marry and secretly ordered them all, to kill their new husbands during their wedding nights. Only one daughter Hypermnestra, did not obey her father’s command because her husband respected her wish not to have sexual intercourse during the wedding night. The fact that this man respected the personal values and wishes of the woman, saved his life. It is this message besides expressing women’s surviving power that the work wants to send out. The work forms an additional witness of the #metoo movement. The need not to disrespect the personal values and boundaries of women. With the warning to men and a call for women to see their own strength.
The sculpture captured the emotional state of mind when Hypermnestra was brought to court for disobeying her father and was expecting death penalty. But what the original sculpture doesn't show, is that by divine interference her circumstances will change completely. The title ARE YOU STILL BROKEN? does share with the viewer this insight and combines it with an introspective psychological encouraging understanding. Meaning that this modern contemporary anonymous woman, as well as the spectator regardless of gender, or Hympernestra according to the story, are only temporarily broken. Nevertheless, eventually there will be a turnaround a moment of change or healing. The moment one will rise again. The question is when, and by what. Time? External factors? Introspection? Our mind? One morning you could simply decide I will suffer no more.
The work ARE YOU STILL BROKEN? is encouraging the spectator - particularly women - not to only see one’s own brokenness but also to see one’s strength. ARE YOU STILL BROKEN? expresses that despite all the pain and all the low points, one is miraculously capable of overcoming it all over time. The work combines beauty with inner hurt and transforms pain into strength in accordance with Friedrich Nietzsche’s words: what does not kill you, only makes you stronger.
The title ARE YOU STILL BROKEN? also holds a tune of relative humor, adding some irony and positive lightheartedness beside the moral encouragement and intimate melancholy. Like a self-deprecating tongue-in-cheek to the cliché time heals all wounds.
The sculpture weighs about ca. 200 kilos and was hand carved out of Carrara marble after first having made a model in clay by hand. A process that all together took more than six months and was a close collaboration with the workers who carved this piece.
The Carrara marble represents the historical dimension but combined with the modern nickers and the mirrored glass, the sculpture becomes a mix of times.
The multiple use of mirrored glass, symbolises and stimulates the process of self-reflection. Therefore the sculpture is placed on a white cube wooden pedestal with also an 8 mm glass mirror top, making the sculpture appear to float and reflect in the water like a rock or island. Accentuating the woman’s loneliness and solitude.
The reflecting - like water - mirrored glass is calling the viewer to come closer, and fall into one’s inner well. Like a Siren enticing you into the process of Introspection.
ARE YOU STILL BROKEN? by Roos Schneijderberg.
A sculpture about Female Objectification, Brokenness, and Strength. Carrara marble hand carved combined with mirrored glass. Height 47 cm x width 84 cm x depth 39 cm and weight ca. 200 kg.
Pedestal wood with 8 mm glass mirror top. Height 95 cm x width 90 cm x depth 90 cm.