Fleur van den Berg

I mine

Her Life, My Life is a monumental contemporary sculpture exploring female autonomy, liberation, and embodied agency.

2024
385 x 247 x 41 cm
EPS, tile glue, ironpaint and other materials

In her life, my life, a four metre high female figure becomes visible, breaking free from an inverted cross. This cross, rooted in Christianity, symbolizes a religion that for centuries assigned women a subordinate role and erased them from history, a religion that suppressed female sexuality and shrouded it in shame.

The inverted cross, traditionally a sign of Saint Peter’s humility, has over time acquired associations with rebellion, anti clericalism, and even satanism. In this work, it takes on a new meaning: not a symbol of destruction, but of radical reversal. It represents a woman reclaiming herself, a figure who plunges downward with complete surrender, on her way toward liberation. Her downward hanging, fanning hair embodies the freedom she longs for and fights for.

A freedom not defined by licentiousness, but by agency over one’s own body and mind. By living without shame about one’s sexuality or womanhood.

The rust evokes a sense of heaviness and transience, of structures slowly crumbling away, yet it also points to the earthly, to life itself.

Factsheet

Dimensions
385cm, 247cm, 41cm (Height, Width, Depth)
Weight
70kg
Year
2024
Edition
1
Material
Rust, Others, Mixed Media, Metal
Style
Monumental, Immersive Art, Figurative, Expressionist
Theme
Spirituality, Society, Body
All artworks from Fleur van den Berg
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