Pay Attention to the Heavens

Pay Attention to the Heavens’ is inspired by the iconography of ancient Greek and Roman mythology, its folklore, and its religious paintings, recasting the contemporary woman as a powerful goddess of nature and a portrayal of femininity.

Pay Attention to the Heavens, 2023

Lilli Waters

Swirling. Falling. Letting go. Limbs tumble and submerge inside the

mystical Tidal River on Yiruk Wamoon, the land of the Boonwurrung,

Bunurong and Gunaikurnai people. Angelic beings emerge from below,

disappear and then resurface with new awareness. Their translucent,

glimmering skin is alive with a curvaceous beauty, concealed and

revealed in an endless cycle of shimmering stardust, a tempestuous

storm catapulting and sinking, falling and rising.

Troubling and foreboding, these divine figures glisten under the golden

sun, bold and unafraid, swirling in harmony with the heaving currents,

perhaps sensing an unknown fate. Reflections of light unify their

intertwined sculptural poses. The intensity of a young woman’s face is

revealed. Emboldened by a feeling of belonging, her body is united with

the flowing water that surrounds her. Resistance gives way to acceptance as

she embraces its dark and murky depths.

The light falls.

These women are sensual and disarming gatekeepers. Rulers of the

underworld, dancing an ancient ritual in the day's playful hours. The

whirlpool's silent brooding surge is imbued with unease, yet the figures

are empowered, not resistant. They are nature, not separate from it.

Pay Attention to the Heavens’ is inspired by the iconography of ancient

Greek and Roman mythology, its folklore, and its religious paintings,

recasting the contemporary woman as a powerful goddess of nature and

a portrayal of femininity that we should celebrate, embrace and worship.

God-like enigmatic female figures are submerged within a dramatic

watery cloud-scape, blurring the lines between heaven and earth,

between what we feel, and sense we may have lost within the walls of

the Patriarchy. Portraying the existential dualities of light and dark, they

transverse through a portal into an unknown time of fear and discomfort,

longing for a deeper connection.

Inside one’s belly lies an unborn child, symbolic of fertility and the spirit

of woman, the mother, a life bearer and giver of an emblem of divinity. A

womb within a womb, a galaxy within a galaxy. The birth of the first

galaxy gives birth to everything else.

Luminous skin bejewelled in shining beads, draped in gold embellished

fabrics that cling to their torsos, symbolise both strength and beauty,

softness and fragility of the female. Bronze is reminiscent of the noble

metals of ancient warriors’ armour, or a flame-like deity floating above an

ember-filled sky.

Dishevelled red hair trails through ominous waters like raging blooms of

algae and long locks appear like a plume of black smoke symbolising

untethered femininity, powerful and dangerous. A shroud of veiled gold,

winged garments entangling their bodies, and evocative gestures of their

hands empower rather than bind these symbols of defiance and wonder.

The unsettling maelstroms in which these figures tumble and swirl into

the vortex are their refuge, perhaps a pathway to enlightenment. They

are immersed in the storm, the circularity flowing through all life, not

separate or removed but intrinsically interconnected.