Cross Purpose
Found Object Sculpture
Private Collection
The plastic figurine of a pale-skinned, bikini-clad blond woman is a cleverly designed bottle produced in 1957 to contain a popular brand of shampoo. After buying this commercial artifact in a consignment shop in the mid-1990s, Shields was struck by the resemblance between the woman's pose and that of Christ in traditional depictions of the crucifixion. Moved to explore the incongruous connection between these two very different kinds of images, Shields subsequently affixed the shampoo bottle to a wooden cross she made at the appropriate scale and painted black to match the bikini. Then she completed the piece by adding the plastic novelty-store skull at the bottom of the cross.
Titling it "Cross Purposes." She exhibited it for the first time in early 1998 in a group show at Winston-Salem;'s Artworks Gallery. The piece is open to a range of interpretations, but its treatment of timeless art themes - namely religion, death, and the female body - rendered it automatically controversial. Several irate comments were left at the gallery by viewers who felt it was sacrilegious, and there was at least one letter to the local newspaper voicing the same complaint after a photograph of the piece was published there. The sculpture has also been previously shown at Salem College, where it generated lively discussion. -- Tom Patterson
Private Collection
The plastic figurine of a pale-skinned, bikini-clad blond woman is a cleverly designed bottle produced in 1957 to contain a popular brand of shampoo. After buying this commercial artifact in a consignment shop in the mid-1990s, Shields was struck by the resemblance between the woman's pose and that of Christ in traditional depictions of the crucifixion. Moved to explore the incongruous connection between these two very different kinds of images, Shields subsequently affixed the shampoo bottle to a wooden cross she made at the appropriate scale and painted black to match the bikini. Then she completed the piece by adding the plastic novelty-store skull at the bottom of the cross.
Titling it "Cross Purposes." She exhibited it for the first time in early 1998 in a group show at Winston-Salem;'s Artworks Gallery. The piece is open to a range of interpretations, but its treatment of timeless art themes - namely religion, death, and the female body - rendered it automatically controversial. Several irate comments were left at the gallery by viewers who felt it was sacrilegious, and there was at least one letter to the local newspaper voicing the same complaint after a photograph of the piece was published there. The sculpture has also been previously shown at Salem College, where it generated lively discussion. -- Tom Patterson