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Dressed in a floor-length black skirt and a lace vest,
the artist, at a distance, appears formal and elegant. A closer look reveals
a once conventionally beautiful woman with a full beard. Her fragile bones
are on the outside. In the distance a voice repeats "Do you love me?".
Mars spends three days carefully setting and placing
mousetraps on the floor with cinnamon hearts for bait. Like in a relationship,
any unforeseen occurrence can set off a single trap causing a chain reaction.
Patiently and lovingly, she repairs the damage. While she is dealing with
the task at hand little attention is paid to her emotions. The pile of
mousetraps, waiting to be set and arranged, is overwhelming. The pieces
on the floor are obsessive and compelling.
Being a middle-aged woman, I find Mars' piece particularly
poignant. Confidence and lack of confidence become blurred, and impetuousness
is replaced by hope and faith. Strengths are often found in vulnerabilities.
Giving the necessary time becomes a profoundly generous gift.
HOT is a multi-media/process/performance work
that plays with the irony of being 50, a magical number of celebration
signifying accomplishment, joy, success...unless you are a woman, for
whom 50 signifies decline, invisibility, something less than valuable.
Performed in an installation/environment constructed over a period of
three days, Hot evokes a soothing/ominous atmosphere. Hot
is about love, aging and companionship, with a resolution that evokes
hopeful sadness.
-Tanya Mars, excerpt from an artist's statement
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