Jenazia Conway
Core Seminar
Exhibition Review
Exhibition Review: Phenomenal Nature
The Phenomenal Nature exhibit by Mrinalini Mukherjee is vegetal, erotic and her formalist techniques are displayed throughout the whole gallery. I experienced each piece before referring to the exhibition guide in order for me to take in her work without any prior explanation. One thing I noticed immediately was the numerous female genitalia I found my self identifying. There was one point where I had to question what I thought was my own perversion of the statues, but to my surprise, after reading the guide I was correct in my observations. Many of the fiber statues in the exhibit are forms based off of flowers that also explicitly represent the female genitalia. There were a couple of phallic fiber works but the exhibition as a whole, the way that I experienced it had a very feminine aura. One piece that stood out to me the most is depicted above. Pushp (Flower) by Mrinalini Mukherjee, 1993 is a free-standing work inspired by a burgeoning magnolia flower that unmistakably resembles female genitalia. Mukherjee’s use of naturalism is compelling, it is less about sexual pleasure but more a representation of union, separation, and femininity.
