Cantos of the Sibylline Sisterhood Conjures a Feminist Future, LA Weekly
Throughout history, and across cultures and continents, there have always been women, sibyls, who possessed secret, sacred knowledges from the healing arts to folklore - and especially clairvoyance. Depending on the context, these figures might be revered, worshiped, sought out or feared, shunned and persecuted, but they always helped usher in the future. Taking this historical archetype as its framework, Cantos of the Sibylline Sisterhood gathers a group of feminist, queer and trans artists working in a range of mediums, all of whom tap into that ancestry, setting ages-old potencies against modern-day threats.
In the many crosscurrents of theme, motif, material and symbolism, the group does function like a sisterhood, as each artist addresses interrelated issues of permeable identity and power dynamics playing out in their diverse cultural milieus and lived experiences, as well as in their individual styles and mediums. One thing they share is the understanding that the current halls of power could use some renovation, and that it's long past time to listen to women - or better yet, lose the stunted binary and embrace a more ambiguous pluri-potentiality for a future that is actually new, and whose freedoms are truly available to all.