Suzanne Wright : Feminist Alchemy

Alchemy is the hermetic science and art of causing change, both physically and spiritually, a seemingly magical process of transformation, creation, or combination.

For this series Suzanne Wright researched the ‘secret architecture’ of Washington DC, and it’s hidden zodiac and cosmological symbolism. Using Google Earth to view the capital city from an arial perspective, she has created an inverted, ‘feminized’ version of the city’s monuments, opening a dialogue that responds to those historically masculine symbols of power.

The piece A Goddess Eye View references the Washington Memorial, a giant obelisk which was inspired by the Egyptian obelisk ‘Tekhenu’, a phallic salutation to the sun god. Wright’s version sees the memorial topographically from above, transforming the masculine symbol into a universal one: the overlapping of two spheres to form a Vesica Piscis.

Wright proposes a contemporary feminist alchemy, forging alternative frames of reference with new perspectives that lead us to a re-vitalized kind of perception, equality and empowerment.