In 2013-2014 I lived in Rome for six months on a writing residency. I spent a lot of time in museums, archaeological and historical sites of various kinds. One of my favourites was the Etruscan Museum. It was while walking around in my last week in Rome with artist and feminist, Suzanne Santoro that I really came to appreciate several of the exhibits. Suzanne has lived in Rome since the 1970s and actively involved in the feminist collective and printing house, Rivolta Femminile which published her book Towards New Expression. Suzanne depicted women’s bodies in ways that created an uproar, leading to her book being censored by the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London. Reflecting later, it was no surprise that she drew me over to the display of due uteri: two uteruses. Here is one of them:
I thought about how western medicine thinks that it is the first knowledge system to understand the body. Here were beautifully crafted ceramic moulds, uteri clearly based on an intimate and detailed knowledge of female anatomy. Suzanne tells me that, ” The Etruscans were great anatomists and even sculpted clitorises on handles of vases.”
We then looked further afield and there were not just one or two uteri, there were many ceramic uteri. They are like ancient urns. But in the photo below if you look at the flat one, it is like the mazes that women have created in so many places. The label for number 45 reads:
Utero a placca con dedica a Vei-Demetra: Uterus as plate with dedication to the goddess Demeter
When I came to writing my novel Dark Matters, I found myself back in the Etruscan Museum with my characters and I have them stop at this exhibit and as the distance between them trembles, each sees the wonderful humour of this and each wonders how few have looked at this display and missed the critical elemental forms held there.
This is what I wrote in Dark Matters:
We walk around together looking at the old remains of the Etruscans. In a glass case is a beautiful sheep’s head. Those Etruscans really knew their sheep. This one looks like a Border Leicester with its Roman nose.
As we are leaving, the most extraordinary exhibit I’ve ever seen, Due uteri, says the label. I look again. They are like conch shells. Next to the two, another two, are opened out. Each uterus resembles the rings of a tree trunk or even a spiral. We both laugh. We laugh and grab one another, grab ourselves with hysteria. We laugh until we cry. We leave the museum with tears on our cheeks. Tears of loss and love and more loss. All the days we have missed. The tears sweep away the anger we each have felt.
Below, exhibit 43 label reads: Quatro uteri su base: Four uteri on a base
These ones remind me of shells or fish. My two characters are thrilled by what they saw. And I was too. Thanks to Suzanne Santoro for helping me see this.
(Meet Mago Contributor) Susan Hawthorne.
Sources:
Suzanne Santoro: https://www.magoism.net/2016/02/meet-mago-contributor-susan-santoro/
Dark Matters: http://www.spinifexpress.com.au/Bookstore/book/id=297/
Available internationally through good bookstores and online retailers.
All photos © Susan Hawthorne, 2014
Text © Susan Hawthorne, 2018