The Electric Bride
1989
280 x 300 x 240 cm
Aluminium, steel, cock feathers, Elmflex micanite, brass, blown glass.
Cosmic Drama series
The figure of the Electric Bride stands in a steel enclosure, which separates her from our world. Electric Bride and the cage are connected by an electric current, which is made visible in the form of 9 red-hot wires. A glass head pulses with strobe light and a whispered text is heard.
Lijn was inspired to make this sculpture by a chance visit to an electrical substation. The huge buzzing electrical transformers filled her with awe.
Machines for transformation and production are seen simply as a means to an end, split off from any deeper meaning or connection with the inner lives of men and women. Our only feelings for these steel and concrete behemoths are fear and loathing as they threaten to pollute and destroy our natural environment.
For many years Lijn has felt that the forms of the energy industry, ie cooling towers, oil refineries, electrical transformers, were symbols related to our inner landscape. The great female archetypes have been locked up and hidden in the underworld. The huge transformers had appeared to her in their cages with their outstretched arms sparking electricity into the darkness as ikons of the great goddess of our time.
Photographs credit Thierry Bal and mima
