Artists share worldwide images of woman

Nathalie Ndolo, of the Democratic Republic of Congo, depicts a pregnant woman working alongside her children

By Thurston Hatcher
CNN

(CNN) -- To a Bulgarian artist, it's a woman's hand cradling a blood-red apple. To a painter from the Democratic Republic of Congo, it's a pair of females, one pregnant, hauling water and a basket of food, another clutching a child. To an English artist -- a child's vest made from steel wool.

These striking images are part of a colorful, eclectic exhibition of 177 works in "Women of the World: A Global Collection of Art," in which artists from many countries tackle the same question: What image represents woman?

The exhibition, which opened earlier this month at the University of New England in Portland, Maine, is the brainchild of Claudia DeMonte, an artist and professor at the University of Maryland.

She says she dreamed up the idea five years ago after a trip to Tibet, where she was working with local artists on creating appliques, a traditional textile craft. But when she asked them to translate female-related images -- like high-heeled shoes and handbags -- from her own work, she discovered a disconnect.

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See a photo gallery of art from the exhibit

"I still hadn't realized how Western-centric my work was until I was there and saw them struggling with what a toaster was," she says.

She decided to get a more nearly universal take on such imagery by asking women worldwide for their artistic interpretations of womanhood. The only requirement was that the works measure 8 inches square.

Project took longer than expected

Using personal connections, museums, government agencies, even the United Nations, DeMonte attempted to contact artists in every country. Organizing the effort, she figured, would take about six months.

British artist Pat Derrick used steel wool to create her work. "This piece is a reflection of war victims' desperation. The steel-wool vest symbolizes a mother's anguished attempt to shield her baby from harm," she said in an artist's statement

"I had no idea what I was getting into, and it was much harder than I thought, much slower than I thought, and a thousand times more rewarding than anything I've ever done in my life," she says.

She says she was discouraged on occasion when she couldn't get through to some countries or didn't hear back. But she persevered, and in the end, gathered works from all but a handful of nations. Among those left out are Chad and North Korea.

"It was just very meaningful to get these packages from all over the place and see these women's outpouring of what they thought meant woman to them," she says.

The works come in a variety of media, including paintings, collage, embroidery, photography and batik. Some -- a Burundi depiction of a woman with a basket -- have a relatively primitivist style; others, such as a beaded painting from Senegal, are abstract.

Women working

Certain images resurface in several of the works -- women's bodies, hands, faces, the mother-and-child motif. Work also figures prominently.

Caritas Kamelo, of Burundi, depicts a woman at work in her contribution to the collection

"So many of the images were (of) women doing hard labor, women working in the fields," she says.

DeMonte initially planned to represent the United States until she concluded that as a curator, she might do well not to include her own work in the show. So she turned to a mentor whom she describes as an "art mother." The woman agreed to participate as long as she wouldn't be identified.

When she started the project, DeMonte didn't anticipate the project's full costs, which quickly accumulated as she mailed off letters.

As word about the project spread, she received several grants, including one from the head of New York's Museum of Modern Art, and another from an anonymous foundation.

The exhibition, which opened last year in New York, will be showing in Portland through August 18. Coming stops are scheduled to include the Tucson Museum of Art in Arizona; the Museum of the Southwest in Midland, Texas; and the Mobile Museum in Alabama. The works eventually are to be auctioned, with proceeds benefiting the New York Women's Foundation.

DeMonte says she's delighted by public reaction to the project, not to mention the personal fulfillment.

"I virtually have a friend in every country on Earth now," she says.