Chris Twomey “Madonna Series” – E. K. Clark

Inspired by Byzantine icons and early Renaissance painting, Chris Twomey explores themes of motherhood and identity as impacted by the latest scientific theories of ancestry genetics. The “Madonna Series” is her second solo show at the Tribes Gallery. Using all the tools available today; computer manipulated digital photography, printing,  scanning, DVDs, old fashioned painting and drawing, she has produced a heady, engaging, innovative cocktail—an iconography of the past updated for the 21st century in a series of seven paintings, nine digital prints and a DVD.

Starting from her own life (she’s the mother of three children), she photographed and interviewed friends and associates, mothers with small babies. These became the models for her project. She was obsessed with the role DNA played in the structuring of our own identities. As an amateur science buff, she studied the available literature on the subject and even sent off her saliva to be analyzed for its genetic make-up. Fascinated by the idea that small genetic mutations account for the striking differences in our appearance, stature and even racial characteristics, she learned that a distinct mutative group called haplogroup is formed by people living together for many generations. Also, she was enchanted with the phylogenetic maps showing the peregrination of haplogroups around the globe, which she then incorporated into her work. In the artist’s words, “The continuity of the human spirit is found in the relationship between mother and child, merging humanity with science to suggest a new paradigm for the idea of mortality and the self.”

Her paintings are a veritable trove of information. Consider, Haplogroup V, a charming portrait of the artist, herself, striking a Madonna pose, smiling down at her infant daughter—her breast peaking out from underneath her sweatshirt as the child suckles with a beatific smile. The work is painted in scumbled acrylic paint in soft reds, mauves and greens. Around the edges are the drawn and printed maps showing the origin and location of her haplogroup. Eight computer manipulated portraits, four on each side, seem to twist and turn as if demonstrating the transformations/mutations taking place in space and time. A cross-like form runs through the center, over the digital image of mother and child serving to both fragment the work and integrate painting and printed matter. In the background are drawn projections resembling nerve endings that represent the meandering haplogroups. Finally, scribbled and scratched through the paint are numbers that appear like notations in a scientist’s notebook indicate the mutations that have occurred over time. A sweet tenderness suffuses the relationship between mother and child.

The other paintings are formatted along similar lines with a central image of mother and infant bifurcated in the center. Phylogenetic maps weave around the edges. Eight square digital prints of the subjects run down on either side, echoing Renaissance paintings of the Madonna and baby Jesus.

It’s not surprising that Chris Twomey comes from a film background. In her former life she not only wrote scripts but was also a film editor for CBS.           Consequently, her narrative impulse imbricates not only her paintings but the digital print series, as well. In the former, as a story in “motion,” and in the digital prints, the narrative literally demonstrates the “story” of the historical mutations. For example, in Digital I we see the transformations viscerally, as one image is overlaid upon another. Each pair of mother and child is manipulated in the computer and appears contorted as if caught in the instant of becoming another. With simple economy of means, the artist creates a powerful metaphor for the notion of space, time and change.

Chris Twomey brings together and explores disparate themes in her art which impacted her life: the clash of religions and cultures in the events of 9/11; the conflict between motherhood and self-realization; and the journey of humans from prehistory to the present. Proving once again that the personal is political, she discovers both the individuality and commonality of all human beings. This exhibition is definitely worth seeing.