Rachel Feinstein

Beginning with charcoal drawings of figures selected from details of these historical sculptures, Feinstein next developed pastel drawings at full scale on wooden panels, and then painted the images on mirrors. Using brown and grisaille tones to interpret the intricately carved textures of the original works, she represents these figures both individually and in groups. Their eyes are left unpainted, evoking the uncanny sense of becoming one with the painting when the viewer looks into them. The duality of void and reflection in the mirror paintings thereby allows a space for empathy, identification, and comfort. Reanimated by Feinstein, these hybrid bodies convey the complexities of representation and the continued relevance of the past.

Metal Storm is composed of interlocking wooden planes that represent three female witches engaged in a ritual, holding aloft a fiery container that echoes the flamelike tendrils of the figures’ hair. Voluptuous and in contorted poses, these witches were inspired by a 1514 drawing by Hans Baldung Grien, a protégé of Albrecht Dürer and among the first artists in Europe to feature images of witches in his paintings and prints. Baldung worked in an era when women accused of witchcraft were persecuted in mass numbers, but in his portrayals these figures are mysterious, grotesque, erotic, and intriguing. For Feinstein, the witch represents a power and creativity that existed outside the strictures of patriarchal society—an archetype of femininity that was both feared and revered, and one regarded as a more dynamic creative force than the archetypal figure of the mother.