Veiled
2020
Perspex, Led battery operated light, anodized aluminium mesh
41.5 (h) x 38 (w) x 38 (d) cm
Edition of 6 + 2 APs
Liliane Lijn is well known for her spiritual Koan series, relating to Zen meditation riddles and the ash cone of the mythical White Goddess, to the ubiquitous geometrical form of emission, to mountains, to a ray of light, and to the cone of a woman’s skirt. Lijn created kinetic poems in the early ‘60s, continuing in 2019 to produce a nine-metres high poemdrum, Converse Column, commissioned by Leeds University. Her powerful female archetypes, Woman of War and Lady of the Wild Things (1983/6), are both a warning and a cry for awareness of our relationships with each other and our planet.
Referencing both tribal architecture and a veiled female presence, Veiled’s form recalls the conical skeleton of a thipi (or tipi), a tent traditionally made of animal skins draped on wooden poles. Because tipis could be disassembled and packed away quickly, they were the ideal dwelling for nomadic people such as the American Plains Indians and the Sami people in Northern Europe. The metallic mesh draped over the tipi form collates the nomadic and the feminine. As Lijn writes, I have used this form to dwell on the nomadic. The metallic mesh draped over the tipi is no longer a protective skin, but a glossy, seductive veil, through which a faint light may still give hope.
