Cindy Rehm, the synonym of hunger, September 2003
the synonym of hunger was created in response to Max Ernst’s 1930 collage novel A Little Girl Dreams of Taking the Veil. Ernst’s novel conveys the tale of sixteen year-old Marie-Marcel and her vivid and terrifying dreams of sacred and profane desire. Marie-Marcel is a duality and in the narrative she splits and is often perplexed by her separation from herself. Ernst uses the girl’s hysterical displacement to blur the distinctions between Marie-Marcel’s vulnerability and her burgeoning sexual potency.
I borrow from Ernst’s images and words to create my own narrative in the synonym of hunger. My work is the dream/nightmare of a thirty-seven year-old woman who has not dreamed of taking the veil. Symbols within the work reference flight and potency as well as loss and decay. There are many instances of splitting or doubling which indicate a longing toward union. This desire is at once romantic, familial and spiritual.
installation detail
installation view
video still
one of the hundred ink-blot drawings
New LA transplant, Cindy Rehm is an artist and educator. She is the founder and former director of spare room, an installation space that was located inside her private residence in Baltimore, MD. She is the recipient of an Individual Artist Fellowship in Media from the Tennessee State Arts Commission and a Learning to Love You More grant. Rehm’s work in drawing, video, and performance has been shown at ARC Gallery, Chicago; Consolidated Works, Seattle; School 33, Baltimore; at Festival Miden, Kalamata, Greece; and at other venues. She maintains a blog at themouthandtheknife.blogspot.com.
