Golden Boxing Gloves

“Time is the substance I am made of. Time is a river which sweeps me along, but I am the river; it is a tiger which destroys me, but I am the tiger; it is a fire which consumes me, but I am the fire.”   -  Jorge Luis Borges

Post-partum was an interesting period of time.  The depths of feelings explored while pregnant and the subsequent responsibilities brought with a neonate were beyond my expectations and imaginings.  Within a few short months, new titles adhered themselves to my being, mother; carer; provider; protector; nurse; parent and other titles stuck or took on new meaning, woman, daughter, professional, partner, wife.  These words imbued with connotations and expectations filled me with a great sense of delight and an awful sense of dread.  What does it mean to be ‘good enough?’  Would I be able to fulfil these roles successfully?

This sculpture emerged during a period of deep reflection and self-evaluation, while embarking on my Master’s degree in Art Psychotherapy.  An unsettling time of reassessing what I believed to be my identity and developing a new and meaningful understanding of my own psyche.  This coincided with becoming a mother to a beautiful baby girl and a change in career path.  Intense personal therapy accompanied many expressions and art creations during this interval.  The Golden Boxing Gloves sculpture felt poignant and allowed me to understand Susanne Langer when she stated “Artistic form is congruent with the dynamic forms of our direct sensuous, mental and emotional life, they are images of feeling which formulate it for our cognition.”  It felt as though Joy Schaverien’s description of an embodied image came to fruition through this piece.  The sculpture illustrated a depth of emotion that was extremely hard to articulate through words. It clarified for me the multifaceted, multi-layered experience of the phenomenological experience.

At the most fundamental level this depiction of a battle worn woman, fighting for the life inside of her and for her life, for the right to motherhood and for a career highlighted the juxtaposition of entitlement and sacrifice.  This for me is what Friedrich Nietzsche called Heroic…

To face simultaneously one’s greatest suffering and one’s highest hope. 

Janet Havemann Bowser: Since qualifying with a Masters in Art Psychotherapy from Derby University, I have mainly worked with children and adolescents with mental health concerns.  I run workshops for schools on the benefits of Art Therapy and a range of topics including Attachment and Self-care.  I facilitate experiential Art Therapy groups and enjoy working with families and the dyadic relationship between parents and their children.  I believe passionately in the potential for art to be a medium of communication.