Cara Sevec

My current project, Three Sisters, is a multi-media sculpture that acts as a pseudo sundial and protective structure. Three Sisters is a piece about the ties between womanhood and sisterhood and my role as a woman and sister. Both are roles that are culturally and individually unique and change over time. There is a strength in the number three. It provides a sound foundation for architectural construction and visual composition. I’ve drawn inspiration from the Triple Goddess, a neopagan deity of ancient Europe, which emphasizes the divinity of feminine power in numbers. The same strength arises in the relationship with my own sisters and our unity that prevails over stereotypes of what women should be or how they should act. The memories of our backyard play structure, a fort devoted to my sisters and me, served as a physical representation of our emotional support system. Ink pen drawings on the inside walls mark a celebratory collaboration of a permanent bond between three young women.  

The three legs of the sculpture lean on each other for stability, identical in material and scale, but dependent on one another, like my relationship to my sisters. The legs interlock when positioned together to reflect a humanoid form, balanced and seamlessly coexisting. Only subtle nuances differ the legs from one another, such as the patterns in their patina copper paint armor or their internal mosaic composition. The mosaic on the underbelly of the sculpture gives a peek into the personalities of three sisters, similar in material makeup and complementary in their variability. The design of the sculpture is an inversion of a historic symbol of femininity in art: the vessel, a restricted allegory of a woman’s reproductive potential which is no longer a circumspect representation of contemporary womanhood. The societal role of the woman is no longer limited to traditional expectations. Unlike of the vessel’s emphasis on containment and procreation, a contemporary woman can take on many roles in the world and flourish. The form invites the viewer to consider whether the tipped vessel is uncomfortable, exciting, intimidating, or all of these at once.