Lilian Broca - Artist Bio

          Throughout my career I have explored relationships and the nature of the human condition through symbols and metaphors. The Queen Esther Series deals with sacrifice and I chose the biblical Queen Esther as a prototype for the courageous, selfless heroine who wins against all odds. As a young woman, Esther fulfilled her role as leader at a time of crisis with intelligence, persistence and dedication. Today we view her as a role model and as such, she contributes significantly to the status of women in society.

          The bright, seductive colours of Venetian glass and smalti I used in creating mosaics many years ago, suddenly beckoned me. The coincidental fact that mosaics were first mentioned in the biblical Book of Esther (within the description of King Ahasuerus’s palace) contributed to my decision to further explore this unique art form. In our present Post-Modernist society executing the Esther Series in an ancient method with added contemporary symbolism seems most appropriate.

          Esther exemplifies the theme of sacrifice. She was totally disinterested in becoming a candidate to be crowned Queen, and the text emphasizes that she was taken to the palace against her will. Like all obedient women of antiquity, Esther complied with given instructions and continued doing her uncle Mordechai’s bidding, even after being crowned Queen.

          As Queen of Persia, Esther was as inferior in status as any other woman. Her life at court was luxurious, but since she was completely isolated in the King's harem amongst women of a different culture and customs, she must have felt lonely and sad. Esther first sacrificed her maidenhood; later she was obliged to put her life at risk when ordered to go before King Khashayarsha (without the King’s permission) and reveal the treacherous plans Haman had designed without the King’s knowledge. She knew the danger to her was great and immediate, for anyone who approached the court uninvited was liable to be condemned to death. She wisely designed a plan in which she played King Khashayarsha (aka Xerxes, Ahasuerus, and Ahashverosh) and evil Haman against each other. It is my intent to portray Esther as a glorious winner, despite all the demands and sacrifices required of her in a patriarchal culture of antiquity.

          I use the Byzantine Style of creating mosaics; after sketching numerous ideas I paint the final choice as a guide. These designs are created in reverse as mirror images that later get transferred to the panel used as the final substrate. Looking at and following the painted design I then cut Venetian glass tesserae imported from Italy into tiny pieces and glue them on a temporary surface of brown paper the same size as the final mosaic panel. Smalto glass, a combination of opaque glass and enamel, is also being used along with 24 carat gold sandwiched between two thin layers of transparent glass. Four or five shades of each colour are employed to enhance the visual effect; the surface itself becomes a field of attention and more emphatic in its overall unity. Figure and ground merge into one another.

          In a successful mosaic, the manner of the laying of tesserae and the intended image must function interdependently; each individual piece of glass retains its individual identity yet the eye assimilates the pieces into a whole image. This is very different from my previous body of work - paintings and drawings - where the medium was subservient to the image. The mosaics' dramatic subject matter emotive with vibrant colours though laid out in an orderly and rational fashion, are the type of artworks that reflect the present stage in my artistic development.

          Throughout my career I have explored relationships and the nature of human condition. In the past, using the symbolism of fairy tales, marriage, as well as various objects such as purses, I have proposed questions about the relevance of allegorical role models for today’s youth, the exalted position of brides on their wedding day and proposed other contexts for the personal belongings in women’s handbags.

          What stimulates an artist to gravitate to a particular image and to use a medium to express its impact is a mysterious, subtle and continuing revelation to me. For the Lilith Series I draw upon the wisdom of the ancient women within ourselves, the rich archetypes and valuable traditions in order to challenge arena and values that need to be questioned and altered.

          This decade has brought a wave of public awareness of the Lilith Legend - of the first woman, the embodiment of human struggle for equality, independence, love and meaning - to a level unparalleled in recorded history. ‘Male and female has he created them’ proclaims Genesis in its first version of humanity’s creation. The bible later changed its mind, explaining the creation of woman as Yahweh’s afterthought. Jewish tradition outside the bible is rich in legends regarding this first female called Lilith. From the beginning, Lilith perceived herself equal to Adam - equal to man. As Adam insisted on his supremacy, Lilith adamantly refused. Determined to retain her independence and dignity, she chose loneliness over subservience. Lilith left the safety of the Garden of Eden through trickery and in subsequent legends her winged image acquired a revengeful and demonic quality, one that overshadowed the original independent and intelligent character.

          Drawing from the rich symbolism of 5th century Midrashic legends and 15th century Zohar texts, I have been exploring and interpreting the Lilith character as the messenger of, and the hope for human courage and egalitarianism, not only for women, but for all humanity. In my work I use the Lilith legend both as a metaphor and as a powerful tool to reveal the struggle and shifting roles between men and women of this past decade. Through this body of work I am demonstrating the importance of a re-assessment of the legendary Lilith, and call for the inclusion of both her and Eve’s attributes with our notion of a successful, fulfilled 21st century woman. Lilith’s negative legendary perception reflected and shaped men’s feelings about assertive women for centuries.

          My images of Lilith run the gamut, from the beautiful temptress and seducer, to the child-stealing demon and mysterious night predator. Her figure is not the typical Goddess type with large hips, belly and pendulous breasts. Not being a nurturing, motherly type, she represents the modern “physically fit” woman of today. I use layers of spackle on paper and panel which allow me to achieve an ancient, worn texture and soft graphite for dramatic light contrasts. Coloured areas are executed in acrylic paint. Occasionally I introduce collages of older works done in various mediums. Through the lack of recognizable costumes and backgrounds I stress the fact that the Lilith character transcends historical, gender, religious and social boundaries.

          A “bride” is a familiar word to all of us. Normally we associate it with a joyous celebration and the beginning of a new life. A “bride” brings a smile to our lips and images of food, dancing, laughter and merry-making. A “bride” is the centre of attraction, the focus of the marriage celebration, the only instant in a woman’s life when she is completely adored, admired, carefully scrutinized, congratulated, or even envied by a large group of people.

          In art, a shift in perspective can be a powerful tool for examining and conveying ideas. In this series I have taken a given situation and a widely accepted image and endowed it with different plausible meanings in order to provoke a genuine reaction from the viewer, rather than the usual preconditioned attitude which automatically surfaces when seeing or thinking of a bride.

          We all know that not all brides are the happy beings they are pictured to be. We all know that with a new life - marriage - come many disappointments and “living happily ever after” is an old worn out cliché. Yet the word “bride” does not usually evoke such sentiments. By shifting the frame of reference I was able to add new aspects to the word “bride.” Some of these may seem repulsive or outright cruel, but, as in the fairy tale “The Emperor’s Clothes,” it took one look at reality to point out that all the admiration and the clapping of hands given to the Emperor parading his new clothes was based on blind assumption, a predetermined reaction not at all connected with empirical truth.

          Many artists have used metaphors in order to reveal an original thought or meaning. They hoped the viewer would appreciate the meaning in a new light which in turn might lead to solutions not otherwise anticipated. In this series I have addressed on behalf of women universally, the many faces of the marriage ceremony, ranging from the deliriously highs to the extreme of the dreaded morning after the night before. I have used several fairy tale themes because these ancient myths passed down generation after generation have served as life models for many of us. All of them promote virtue as the ultimate winner, but the models must be befitting the time in which we are living, and in the 1990s our perspective of “virtue” has changed. My work challenges these role models as being obsolete in our day and age.