Carnal Portal Doors is a woodcut formed of two plates which will also become the two doors of a three plate print. I have designed the doors in such a way that they can form a composition on their own. When the middle plate is finished, it can be added to form a new composition made up of three plates, that looks like a wooden altar. I finished this two-plate version of the doors to be exhibited at the A Matter Of. stand in the Other Art Fair 24-27 April 2014, which we funded via kickstarter.
The two scrolls at the top read 'Creatio' and 'Sacrificium', creation and sacrifice in Latin. These are titles to each door, the two sides of life/death, and also the two sides of the reproductive cycle: birth and menstruation. The circle at the top, in the middle, represents a uterus with its vaginal opening, from which a skull and a baby come out symbolising these two religious themes in correlation to the female cycle.
On the left God, the Supreme Anatomist extracts Eve from the side of Adam, 'And He opened the flesh'. On the right, Abraham's sacrifice of Isaac: 'Take thy only begotten son/ Isaac/ and offer hin in sacrifice/ I will bless thy seed'. The quotes on this print are inspired by the Bible.
Carnal Portal Doors measures 50x82cm, and the altar will measure 100x82cm. The image below shows the three plates, before any of them had been carved.
