Fetish

I have been collecting fetish or talisman objects used in both primitive and popular cultures for many years. They are visible in African Mami Wata sculptures, Zuni fetishes, Exus in Brazil, Monos used by the Huichols and Maximon sculptures in Guatemala to name just a few. All these objects are used for magical or spiritual purposes but also in the case of Maximon to resolve sexual problems. A fetish can also be an object such as a shoe which holds an obsessive often sexual fascination with its owner.

I have chosen the six artists in this exhibition because I feel their work has a contemporary relevance to the subject. Paul Moshammer often uses hands, feet and heads; Mark Bullwinkle cars, animals and heads; Marsha Balian the human figure in a distorted fashion; Art Moura other worldly creatures; Joseph Mele, heads and Tracy Fitzgerald recurring bird images.

See the Fetish Pop Up Poster

Susan Alexander, curator