Faith Wilding

In this series of drawings, Faith Wilding reflects on her childhood in rural Paraguay in a Bruderhof settlement, a Christian community that strictly enforces gender roles and traditional dress. The women portrayed here seem to float, pray, console, and pleasure themselves and each other amidst a lush environment. Transparent, earthy washes reveal nude bodies under the garments, recalling Wilding’s years of drawing forbidden subjects into the dirt floor of her room then erasing them with water.

Bodies and nature have long been a political site for Wilding. She stated, “I learned a lot about Paraguay that I hadn’t known when I was living there. My eyes were opened to realities about what postcolonial capitalist globalization looks and feels like, especially the massive deforestation.”