Of Apples and Wombs

A grotesque worm burrows through an apple. Blood flows from a tree stump. An eerie branch-being leans over a woman lying on the ground. Blood, bodies, motherhood — the impressive tufted tapestries of artist Chloe-Rose Purcell exhibit a high narrative potential and simultaneously play with symbols from science and cultural history.

For example, the apple, generally known as a symbol of health and fertility, is devoured and hollowed out in Slither, Slither (2023). What was once pure and perfect now seems corrupted, desecrated.

In the Middle Ages, menstruation and the associated pains were considered God's punishment to Eve, who had tempted Adam to partake in the apple from the Tree of Knowledge. With this image in mind, Whack! (2023) can be read almost as a response to Slither, Slither and the Fall. The hands that grip the axe handle appear awkward and untrained, and the naked legs stand uncertain on the ground. Yet, the person, whose upper body is not visible, has succeeded in cleaving the stump. Blood flows from the cleft. Has Eve felled the Tree of Knowledge? Is this revenge for God's punishment?

Through her portrayal of female bodies that give birth, bleed, Purcell tells a different story than the one of immaculate femininity typically celebrated by male artists in art history. Her motifs and figures, sometimes found in drastic scenes, dismantle ingrained notions of a patriarchal worldview that continues to perceive the female body as inferior.

Against misogyny and strategies of devaluation, the artist counteracts with her own feminist narrative. Her triptych An Animal Inside an Animal (2022) addresses the ancient concept of a wandering uterus. In his late work Timaeus, Plato even referred to the uterus as a "creature desiring procreation," wandering around in the woman's body until pregnancy occurs. If this did not happen for a long time, the uterus would bite onto the brain — corresponding to the medical condition of "hysteria" at that time [1]. Another body narrative is also told in Back Again (2023). The woman lying on the ground resembles an open vessel, with blood standing at the edge of the open abdominal wall. Pain and fear reflect in her face. Here, PMS is the hormonal demon that has emerged from within her.

Once again, internal processes are depicted as independent life forms. However, Purcell is not focused on the portrayal of suffering per se. The centerpiece of her work is the female body, specifically the complex womb as a significant biological, emotional, and political force. The color red is central because it contrasts with the shameful, hidden inner somatic processes.

In the end, the circle closes: In the center of Purcell's triptych, Adam and Eve reappear, but in a completely different power constellation. As a cranky baby, Adam is connected to Eve via an umbilical cord, while the Tree of Knowledge unfolds above them. Dripping from its strongest, fallopian tube-like branches. In the foreground lie bitten apples.

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[1] Jutta Kollesch, Diethard Nickel: Antike Heilkunst. Ausgewählte Texte aus dem medizinischen Schrifttum der Griechen und Römer. Philipp Reclam jun., Leipzig 1979, see p.34, 199 and p.141–144.

Text : Christiane Opitz

Cultural Studies Scholar, Writer, Curator