Shanta Lee Gander’s Dark Goddess at Fleming Museum February 8 – December 9, 2022
Shanta Lee Gander led several BWW workshops on Magical Realism, Getting out of your Poetry Funk, and Curating a Creative Life, to name a few. While Dark Goddess was previously shown at the Southern Vermont Arts Center in Manchester, VT in fall 2021, this exhibition has been curated specifically for the Fleming Museum.
Dark Goddess: An Exploration of the Sacred Feminine, an exhibition of her photo series of the same name, has been six years in the making. It is a mix of ethnography, cultural anthropology, an exploration of the sacred feminine, and a co-creation with each of the individuals featured. https://www.uvm.edu/fleming/dark-goddess
Beginning to share the work through exhibition has helped Shanta to sharpen her sense of the purpose of exhibitions in general. “Bringing Dark Goddess to others has been an ongoing inquiry and invitation outside of my comfort zone,” she shared.
This exhibition inspires us to challenge the underlying idea that all of the ways that we see are inherently male.
“We must think of the ways that the camera and the ways that those who have previously not been seen can engage with this technology in ways to cause powerful shifts. As it relates to my work, I hope that it inspires more inquiry, questions about the other selves that are several layers beneath the surface of a society that categorizes and boxes,” writes the artist.
The Museum’s European/American gallery features an extension of Gander’s Dark Goddess exhibition called Object-Defied. Complimenting and contrasting with her photographs hanging in the Marble Court, Gander reexamines objects from the Fleming’s collection through the gaze of the sacred feminine.
This latest iteration of her work will enter into a conversation with the Fleming Museum’s collection and archives in ways that explore the continuum of the sacred feminine through time.
For more information on the exhibit and to view the 15-minute film, click this link: https://www.uvm.edu/fleming/dark-goddess
Dark Goddess: A Short Film
Directed, Written and Produced by Shanta Lee Gander
Sound Design and Music Production by Machafuko NA Vurugu Productions
