Dogwoman Communicates with the Younger Generation, 1982
Performance Festival, Kunsterhaus Bethanien, West Berlin.
Dogwoman barks, howls, yaps, growls and whimpers, telling the viewers about the history of Dogwoman, placing women into history. In the process she communicated with her unborn child about our desire for connection with another species, projecting the images onto a small screen strapped around her pregnant belly. The cross cultural images of dogs are from East and West Berlin art collections and museums; Ely’s photographs of people with their pets, the Berlin pet cemetery, and the many uses of dogs in society - guard dogs, seeing eye dogs, police dogs, etc.
A MOTHER SHOWS HER DAUGHTER TO THE UNIVERSE, 1982
ACT 3: Ten Australian performance artists, Canberra School of Art Gallery, 1982.
Concept: An alternative to the Christian baptism ritual, Ely lifts up her infant daughter up towards the universe, and down towards the Earth, welcoming her daughter to her life on Earth, forging connections with the natural environment,. At the edges she lifts the child up to [see] the universe, and in the centre of the mandala, bent down on one knee, she shows her baby to the Earth.
The action: The artist, Bonita Ely, criss crosses through, across and around a mandala-like earth work, showing her new born baby daughter, in all directions, to the earth below, and the universe above. The mandala is inscribed with rows of sprouting wheat orientated to the cardinal points, planted on a shallow mound of soil.
Approaching the site, babe in arms.
The mandala representing the Earth, on a shallow mound, the cardinal points inscribed with rows of sprouting wheat.
THREE, 1982
Lithograph, printed by John Loane, Viridian Press. Feeding times and postures of mother, father, baby.
