Betsy Dollar

Louise Bourgeois implores, "Do not look for a rational treatise, life is made of experiences and emotions, the objects I have created make them tangible." Each of my works is a personal, emotional portrait that captures a fragment of time and feeling, impressions, and dreams. Each fragment offers me an opportunity for exploration and visual documentation, but it entails risk: the risk of telling, of making it accurate to the experience, and of making it visual.

The piece, Following Her Through the Gates, is based on the ancient Sumerian myth of the Goddess Inanna, Queen of Heaven and Earth, who descends to the underworld to gain knowledge of the dark powers held by her sister Ereshkigal, the Queen of the Great Below. To reach Ereshikigal, Inanna must pass through seven gates where she is stripped of her ornaments and powers. Confronting her sister, crouched and stripped bare, she is killed and placed on a peg to rot. After three days Inanna is resurrected. She leaves the underworld transformed by the knowledge of death and suffering, having gained special insight into the meaning of existence.

Following Her Through the Gates, is based on a perilous psychic journey to individual integration and wholeness. The installation consists of twenty-two panels, each made from two sheets of handmade paper. One side is printed with collaged photographic images, the other side is paper that has been colored and textured to reflect the mood of the gate and create a gradient of color when the piece is viewed from the end. The panels are hung in the pattern of seven gates, three panels to each gate, which the viewer walks through. After the seventh gate the viewer is met with a final image of resolution. The installation is a giant, walk-through book which takes the viewer on a visual, emotional journey.

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