, oil on canvas, 85 x 65 in)
‘Our planet is a giant crime scene and we are all implicated’: Fawn Rogers’ seductive paintings of oysters and pearls use eroticism and ecocriticism to highlight our exploitation of our environment
Agent of protection, impresa of fertility and gastronomic delight of aphrodisia … Oysters aren’t short of symbolic virtues. Unfortunately, figurative lore holds little sway against the damning impacts of human activity on marine ecosystems. Due to overfishing from bottom trawling, the population of oysters has dropped by 85 per cent over the past century and today the species teeters on the brink of extinction.
In Fawn Rogers’ larger-than-life series of sea personalities, these clammy curiosities are imbued with new meaning. Yoking vital themes of extinction, eroticism and ecofeminism, her paintings are an urgent reminder of climate and human rights emergencies and an eloquent testimony to the reality of life that operates beyond our possession.
“Oysters are both very fragile and highly sensual,” Rogers tells Dazed. “It’s so easy to forget about other lifeforms – like the little spider in your shower that you think about killing, but it wants to live as much as you do. With these paintings, I’m trying to place the human in patchworks of vibrant ecologies. I want to feel the delicacy and complexity of the tangled tension and vulnerable webs of life that surround us.”
The term ‘ecofeminism’ has existed within our vernacular since it was first coined by Françoise d’Eaubonne in 1974. As a branch of both feminism and political ecology, it conflates the disenfranchisement and oppression of women, people of colour and the poor with the decimation of the natural world. But never has the phrase been so starkly visualised than in Rogers’ majestic creations. Hard exteriors are cleaved open to expose delicate folds of mollusc flesh seductively inviting us to dwell on the primal world, death and sex.
“It’s so easy to forget about other lifeforms – like the little spider in your shower that you think about killing, but it wants to live as much as you do” – Fawn Rogers
“I believe that the forces of patriarchy oppressing female-identifying and non-binary people also exploit the natural world,” says the artist. “In this geological era, our planet is a giant crime scene and we are all implicated. I am interested in finding ways to unleash emancipatory and sensual possibilities that may embed us more deeply in actuality.”
On a larger scale, Rogers explores the profound conflicts between human nature and the natural world to critique power as the currency of the Anthropocene. In “Poisonous Harmony” figures commingle with raw, natural forms such as shells and fungi, the evocative title an allusion to the part we all play in this messy state of existence.
“I am trying to be present in a world that is being destroyed and full of suffering, and I am part of that destruction,” she reflects. “When I paint a massive clam floating on a brightly coloured, monochromatic background with its plump tongue sticking out, it’s darkly funny to me. It’s both sexy and gross to look at, and I have to kill it, consciously or unconsciously, to survive. We are supposed to have a conscience, and you’d think we would use it for creating a better world, but we don’t. Instead, it’s, ‘Let's go to Mars!’ It’s grimly ironic.”
, 85 x 65 inches, oil on canvas, at Galerie Marguo, Art Paris, March 29 - April 2 )
She continues: “For me, my work is liberatory. It makes me aware of the powers that emerge between people and the world’s ecosystems. I am interested in a future evolution of humanity with empathy, less repression and destruction.”
Photographic contributions to the series of the artist in her studio atop a dappled horse allude, for the first time, to Rogers’ Cherokee heritage and her ancestors’ violent removal from the unbuilt world. The artist responds to how climate change exacerbates the difficulties already faced by indigenous communities with abrupt beauty where the oyster – harvested in her forbearers’ native Oregon coast – is evocative of all life, it’s oozing assurance a mockery of human morality.
Experienced as photorealistic depictions of Bivalvia from afar, at a closer view Rogers’ works are composed of painterly shapes and forms that revel in obscenely erotic and darkly humorous imagery.
In “Our Lady of Guadalupe”, the artist claims the sacred yet repressive image of the Virgin Mary in gooey vitality. “In this painting, you are looking at Mary’s giant sex. But it is not a desecration,” reflects Rogers. “I see it as a celebration of reality, a way of honouring life. I wanted to subvert the myths that have been written by men and supported by women, myths that have oppressed women across history. Poor Eve. Poor me!”
“I wanted to subvert the myths that have been written by men and supported by women, myths that have oppressed women across history” – Fawn Rogers
Rogers’ indulgent and tragicomic commemoration of sexual pleasure finds tactile appeal in the image of the oyster, simultaneously challenging the patriarchal paradigms which have allowed for injustices against women, minority groups and the planet.
“Eroticism in this time is fraught with scary implications,” reflects Rogers. “We are so atomised as a species and removed from our origins that placing sexuality alongside environmental destruction almost feels forbidden. But I like things that feel forbidden. I want the paintings to draw you in and spit you back out. To trigger thoughts about the fragility of life and the equality of all people. The splendour of sex. The beauty of the pussy!”
Fawn Rogers’ Boil, Toil & Trouble will be shown as part of the Expo Chicago from April 13 until 16 2023.
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