Women and material · 2 min read
Our Lady of Liberation
Mary not as a submissive figure, but as a woman who chooses. A work in which the cage becomes a crown and the five wounds become openings for light.
A different reading
The Madonna is a central symbol of Christian iconography, often portrayed as a being submissive to the divine will. Yet a careful reading of the Scriptures gives back a different image: that of a woman who makes a conscious, radical, and courageous choice.
At a time when submission was imposed on women, Mary accepts an extraordinary destiny and breaks the religious and social canons of her age.
A yes that is rebellion
Mary chooses to carry the son of God, knowing that it could cost her her life. She risks condemnation, exclusion, and stoning. And still she says yes.
It is not a yes of submission, but of rebellion. It is an act of faithfulness to an inner truth greater than fear.
The work
In this work, the Madonna is reinterpreted as a figure of rebirth and liberation. Her hair is made of paper feathers: fragile, yet light, agile, and ready to fly. On her head, a cage turns into a crown, the symbol of an alchemical process of awareness and transformation.
All the women who choose
Mary stands for all the women who, in every age, have had the courage to choose themselves. Those who have passed through doubt and solitude, who have broken invisible chains to follow their own feeling and become fully themselves.
In her we see mothers, daughters, rebels, and visionaries. Women who said yes to life even when that meant going against everything.
The kneeler and the five wounds
In front of the figure I placed a kneeler, a symbol of falling and of rising. On it, the five emotional wounds are evoked, represented by five colours:
- rejection
- abandonment
- humiliation
- betrayal
- injustice
They are invisible yet deeply human wounds, which many women carry inside. They can become openings through which light passes.
When the cage becomes a crown
Mary’s courage is an act of spiritual elevation: not blind obedience, but deep listening to an inner calling. It is in this free and revolutionary gesture that the cage becomes a crown and obedience turns into creative strength.
A figure at once agile and fragile, like every true metamorphosis.