Mama Moon (2024)
- Partners for Historical Justice
- Jan 21
- 2 min read
Title
Mama Moon (2024)
Artist
Sydney Buffalow
Medium
Painted on eleven wooden planks
Location
Capital Hill Boys Club Intergenerational Gallery, outdoor fence. 16th and Marion Barry Ave, SE, Washington DC
On the Capital Hill Boys Club, see
Description
In front of a curved black field, an African goddess or queen figure, perhaps with some South Asian elements, faces frontally. A full moon, with visible shadow craters, has risen to her left. The woman’s skin shares the white-gray color of the moon, and her pupils, looking left, echo the shape of the moon craters. The round shape of the moon is echoed in the curve of the black sky (which might evoke the curve of a pregnant woman’s abdomen), the curve of the multicolored diadem on her head, the curve of her multicolored necklace, and the curve of a multicolored strand that spirals from her left shoulder nearly up to the moon, and which continues to describe the boundary between the black night sky and the right colorful half of the work. The right field of the painting is filled with a similar mosaic patterning, of green, yellow and red, as the extended spiral, and a similar palette characterizes the clothing that adorns her. The predominantly green and cool colors of the right field and her clothing presumably emphasize the gifts of bringing new life into the world, associated with female-coded fertility.
Artist’s statement
One of my recent artistic endeavors is the "MOON MAMA" digital collage series. In this collection, I incorporate African wax fabric and vintage African photos of women into a lunar and celestial narrative. These pieces represent a harmonious fusion of tradition, culture, and cosmic wonder, inviting viewers to explore themes of rebirth and transformation.
On Sydney Buffalow’s work overall, see her interview at: https://www.culturaldc.org/sydney-buffalow
Interpretive notes
As the artist notes in her statement, themes of regeneration and reproduction are prominent in the Moon Mama series, emphasizing links between lunar monthly waxing and waning and the female reproductive cycle. Cyclicity is further emphasized by the multiple circles and spirals in the composition.
Prompts to close looking
Why, moving from left to right, does the color palette move predominantly from black and white to cool colors, predominantly greens? Are we viewing a transition from the lunar energies of the night to the soothing growth of nature during the daytime, nourished by the sun?
How should we read the strand of many colors that descends from the moon down to the Queen and then circles around her in the band just beyond the curve of the night? Could this be read as the moon’s gift of fertility descending into the wombs of women? Conversely, might the moon’s tidal force be drawing up the energies of new life towards it? Might this strand recall the strands of DNA that are the blueprint of all organic life?
Why are the eyes of the Moon Mama looking to the left? Is she glancing in the direction of the moon and its life giving tidal forces?
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