Janine Antoni

I open the gates, 2019

Mixed media gilded with 24 karat gold leaf

23 x 25 7/8 x 2 1/4 inches (58.42 x 65.72 x 5.72 cm)

© Janine Antoni; Courtesy of the artist, Luhring Augustine, New York, and Anthony Meier Fine Arts, San Francisco
Photo: Ralph Smith

Called by the image of the sacred heart, the artist attempts to expose the organ we identify with the emotional center. She tucks her fingers under her ribs in an effort to spread her chest apart. To counter this exposure, Antoni casts a spinal column to protect this vulnerable gesture. To encase the image, she drags two vertebrae to accentuate the gestures and shapes made by the body. At the end of this circuitous gilded path, two vertebrae remain.

“I hold myself. Behold myself. Withhold myself. With my holding I open to self.”

“I open the gates” was a part of “I am fertile ground” at Green-Wood Cemetery.