Christine Garvey: “Parlour Tricks”

Author Margaret Atwood wrote perhaps the quintessential line on trying to find the self as a woman under patriarchal society’s thumb: “You are a woman with a man inside watching a woman. You are your own voyeur” (The Robber Bride). This quote comes to mind when observing Austin artist Christine Garvey’s new exhibition, created in the wake of her second child and during her second maternity leave. Through the imagery of 19th century stage magic, Garvey unpacks archetypes associated with women, particularly those built around motherhood as a miracle. Her art invites women to shed the voyeur within and “imagines what new mythologies might emerge if women authored them rather than inherited them.” – James Scott