Work — Amelia Eldridge

Portrait of Young Woman in a Unicorn Vest

2024

Cyanotype solution painted on muslin. Vest is made from cyanotypes of the paintings Portrait of Young Woman with Unicorn by Raphael, Virgin and Unicorn by Domenichino, Lady with a Unicorn by Luca Longhi, and the tapestry The Unicorn Rests in a Garden. The pattern is one my Mom used to make a medieval maid costume for me as a child, which I wore into adulthood. Unicorn is made from cotton stuffed with kapok fiber, sumi ink dyed hooves, with felted milk fiber mane and tale.

Part I: On Memory

I remember when I saw the painting Portrait of Young Woman with Unicorn at the Galleria Borghese in Rome. I was 16, on the cusp of 17. I went with my Grammie, Auntie Margi, and Uncle Joe-my Dad's side of the family. It was a special trip for my Grammie to visit family outside of Naples, in Avellino. We stayed in Sorrento, Rome, and Florence. It was life changing. Over the years I have found myself thinking about that painting. What was it about this painting? For one the memory.

It was my first trip to Europe, and it was my Grammies first time visiting where her family came from. Growing up I did not spend nearly as much time with my Dad's side of the family. My Grammie and Auntie Margi were the first people that represented 'glamour' to me. Here is this beautiful painting of a young woman holding a unicorn, in a gorgeous building, in a romantic city, with these glamorous women, all in one big sensual country. It was pretty potent. Between starting and finishing the vest my Grammie passed away. After her funeral, my Aunt invited family back to her house. She had old pictures out and there were some from Italy. One of which was a snap of my Grammie and I outside the Galleria Borghese with a sign promoting the Raffaello (Raphael) exhibition.

Part II: On Desire

Portrait of Young Woman with Unicorn is believed to have been a portrait commissioned to celebrate a wedding. There are a few different theories as to who the sitter may have been, but the one I'm most drawn to is that of Giulia Farnese, a noblewoman who also became the mistress of Pope Alexander Borgia. Giulia is also believed to have been the model for Longhi's painting, and her Granddaughter, also named Giulia, the model in Domenichino's fresco.

Holding a unicorn showed the sitters purity and chastity, but also their powers of seduction. They 'caught' their prey. By positioning and then photographing myself like the sitter, and countless other loungers, I am exploring these poses that were/are intended to elicit desire in the viewer. In the process attempting to satiate my own desire to be desired. In aligning myself with women (or persons) of antiquity through the present, I am interested in understanding the future of my desires.

I actually found out about Giulia separately from the paintings. The crest of her family is a unicorn. Giulia la bella.

Feverfew/Feverdream

2020

Feverfew and indigo hand dyed silk

My feverfew plants bloomed for the first time during the COVID-19 lockdown. Below is a journal entry I made on June 7, 2020.

“My feverfew plants started to bloom for the first time this week. Also called "maid's weed," "midsummer Daisy," and "devil's daisy," I tried growing feverfew a few years ago for my migraines but it never took. Last year I planted them but they didn't bloom. I guess this was the magic week. Associated with the planet Venus, they have a medicinal history as treatments for menstrual problems and headaches as a blood thinner. They are used in mojo bags for protection, and during plagues people planted them around their houses for protection. (They probably kept vermin from entering the home due to the leaves smell.) It also was tied around ones' wrists to draw out pain in medieval Europe. A delicate ally for profound times.”

Over the years that I’ve grown, I’ve come to understand how similar gardening is to the art making process. I both intuitively choose seed types and grow flowers that I am in planetary alignment with. Mainly flowers that alchemically align with the Moon and Venus. Luminaries in my astral footprint.

Corpse Candle

2020

Ink on Paper

Corpse candles, or Canwyllau Cyrff, were luminous balls of blue or yellow lights that were said to travel along old corpse roads in the Welsh countryside and in some parts of England along the Welsh border. They were believed to be predictive of one’s death, or location of one. Sometimes groups of them traveled together to a cemetery or church yard, as a phantom funeral procession accompanied by muffled voices. A few days later a funeral would take that same route to the church for a burial.

The Faun

2019

Fur/Horns: Flax

Body: Black Tea Hand Dyed Linen

Hooves: Sumi Ink Hand Dyed Muslin

I believe I was in the presence of a faun in the Great North Woods of New Hampshire. The trees were so close and still, they absorbed every sound. But when I realized he was there and turned around, he had already gone.

“Me? I’ve had so many names..Old names that only the wind and the trees can pronounce. I am the mountain, the forest and the earth. I am….I am a faun. Your most humble servant, Your Highness”- The Faun, from Pan’s Labyrinth

White Mountains, NH

2019

Sumi ink and avocado/iron dye on paper

Some say the world will end in fire,

Some say in ice.

From what I’ve tasted of desire

I hold with those who favor fire.

But if it had to perish twice,

I think I know enough of hate

To know that for destruction ice

Is also great

And would suffice.

-Fire and Ice by Robert Frost

from his collection of poetry titled ‘New Hampshire’ published 1923

All pieces in this series have been sold.

Matsukaze, a Pining Wind

2019

Hair: baby alpaca

Clothing: Shibori Indigo hand dyed muslin, indigo hand dyed Japanese silk

Matsukaze (Wind in the Pines) and Murasame (Autumn Rain) are two sister characters in the Noh play “Matsukaze, or ‘Wind in the Pines.’” The play centers around the two poor fisher sisters who live in the remote region of Suma Bay in Japan. They fall in love with a courtier in exile, who promises to return for them after being summoned back to court. He never does and they die of grief. The sisters haunt a pine tree on the beach in Suma that they associate with the courtier, until they meet a traveling priest. Through the interactions with the priest, Murasame is able to let go of her earthly desires for the courtier and pass on to the next realm. However, Matsukaze cannot and is left to continue on as a pining wind. This play is associated with the season of autumn, or the ninth month in the lunar calendar (September). Thus, my Matsukaze and Murasame were installed on the last Saturday in September, the transitional day from the ninth to the tenth month in that years’ lunar calendar. Consequently, they were installed in this pine tree as the new moon was rising in the sky.

I was drawn to this story because I find myself engaging in the act of ‘pining’. Filled with a desire for someone or something I cannot have or may never have existed. I identify with the spirits of the sisters haunting the lone pine on the beach. Becoming spirits of the natural world, personified in the characters of their names that translate to a ‘wind in the pines’ and 'autumn rain.’

Moon Above Ocean, Ice Over Sea

2018

Handmade paper in the Indo-Islamic style. Cotton and Abaca blend, Flax, Indigo Dye

In July of 2017 I took an Islamic Papermaking and Natural Dye class with artist Radha Pandey at Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts. These pieces of paper were made during this time.

Gracie

2017

Gracie is made from hand dyed indigo muslin, thread, rice, polyfil, and horsehair.

She is 28 inches tall.

Gracie was made over a period of time when I was volunteering on the Trauma Disorders Inpatient Unit at Sheppard Pratt Hospital. While on the unit, I worked and made art with people who have been diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and/or Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID), as well as other co-occuring disorders. DID is a dissociative disorder that is characterized by the presence of two or more distinct identities, or personality states, or simply, 'parts.' The disorder is developed as a result of severe and prolonged trauma, usually experienced in childhood. On the unit, I began to think about the use of dolls both in a traditional and contemporary sense, to serve as vessels or representations of spirits, people, or distinct parts of ourselves. I think about patients I was lucky to meet on the unit when looking at Gracie. Because of this, I consider myself to have worked in collaboration with patients to make her. Without this experience, I could not have made Gracie.

Gracie is named after a horse I love who was the source of the horsehair in this piece. She is part of a horse back riding program that offers therapeutic riding lessons called The Retreat at Beckleysville. I have been both a rider and a volunteer at this program.

Rhytidome

2016

Charcoal and Thread on Undyed and Sumi Ink Hand-Dyed Muslin, Cream Felt and Sumi Ink Hand-Dyed Felt. On Avocado Dyed Fabric (Fall Installation)

36" x 28"

As a meditation on the changing of the seasons, the texture of the forest, and the passage of time, I installed the arms in a different configuration throughout the winter, spring, summer, and fall of 2016 in the woods behind my childhood home. There are an equal amount of both undyed and hand dyed arms. The documentation photographs follow the respective order of the seasons with which they were installed.