In the dedicatory poem of his essay on poetic myth The White Goddess, first published in 1948, Robert Graves writes of a magnificent, but cruel, divine being with a brow as ‘white as any leper’s’, blue eyes, ‘rowan-berry lips’, and ‘hair curled honey-coloured to white hips’. Not all goddesses are, of course, white, and Graves’ iconic poem may seem at first sight to be somewhat passé, pointless, and politically incorrect, but hidden in it are references to many of the different aspects of female power that are graphically and diversely celebrated in a fascinating exhibition at the British Museum. Feminine Power: the divine to the demonic is the first of its kind there to focus on the many ways that female power and authority has been imagined, represented, and perceived. It features over 70 objects, both sacred and secular, from cultures from across six continents as it moves from the highest heaven to the deepest hell, from the gleaming white porcelain of the compassionate goddess Guanyin to the darkest bronze of the feared demoness Lilith.
As the exhibition’s curator Belinda Crerar explains, the whole show is divided into paired sections: Creation & Nature; Passion & Desire; Magic & Malice; Justice & Defence, and Compassion & Salvation – all these exude feminine power and are represented in multiple ways. The exhibition explores the history and background of diverse objects, some dating back as far as 6000 BC, set alongside works by living artists, such as the Lebanese sculptor Mona Saudi’s marble Mother Earth (2010), which opens the show. There are also ‘talking heads’ on screens (such as Mary Beard and Bonnie Greer), serving as live commentators, and visitors are encouraged to interact, ask questions, and make comments about how they understand feminine power.
To return to Graves, Encyclopedia Britannica sums up the poet’s concept of the White Goddess in the following way: she ‘combines the powers of love, destructiveness, and poetic inspiration. She ruled during a matriarchal period in the distant past before she was deposed by the patriarchal gods, who represent cold reason and logic.’ Graves believed that all women embody something of his White Goddess, she who creates, nourishes, seduces, and destroys, and, in the exhibition, we find all these qualities displayed.
