Alchemy of Woman
Selected to be in the FIT exhibition; Evolution: Fashion Design AAS on display in the FIT Art and Design Gallery
Three piece look: hand embossed velvet, silk taffeta. Buckram frame hat: hand embossed velvet, faux feathers, leather cording.
Informed by mythos, ancient story and women’s voices, Alchemy of Woman is, above all, an exploration of feminine resilience and transformation through the lens of myth. Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey is widely recognized as the dominant narrative structure of heroic storytelling; yet I find that Maureen Murdock’s “Heroine’s Journey” offers a more resonant framework for woman-centered narratives. Where Campbell seeks man’s resemblance to the gods, Murdock instead turns our gaze toward the Goddess, uncovering her presence within us. She challenges the ideal of the exceptional figure and locates sacrality in what she refers to as the “divine ordinary.” It is through this mode of storytelling that I arrive at a personal meditation on the myth of Daphne and Apollo: on rebirth, nature’s cycles and the enduring, transformative power of Womankind.
The myth of Daphne and Apollo recounts the pursuit of the nymph Daphne by the god Apollo. Enamored and relentless, Apollo ignores her refusals, chasing her deep into the forest where he attempts to assault her. At the last moment she transforms into the Laurel tree.
It is not the horrific attempted act which is the focus of this interpretation. It is the aftermath, the transformation. ‘Alchemy of Woman’ tells the tale of Daphne as a heroine. One who, despite enduring a traumatic event, does not lose herself to rage, despair, or anguish. It is a story where that very rage, despair and anguish alchemizes into a transcendent symbol of one’s agency and bodily autonomy. Here, Daphne can be understood as choosing the Laurel, becoming something vast and infinite acting as a narrative shift toward the moment of transformation and the ephemeral beauty of Womanhood.
