Jill Bedgood
Jill Bedgood created a mixed media installation, Deadly Sins/ Worldly Virtues, that explored contemporary issues as they related to society and some of the seven deadly sins. Her small bronze sculpture titled Tiara for Fashionable Causes reflected society’s need to receive recognition and acknowledgment for doing good works. The needy causes of the day must be rewarded appropriate Hollywood glamour; her tiara symbolized this need to be “crowned with power and recognition.”
Bedgood’s installation made of a hair-shaped crown of thorns mounted on a white cloth was titled Tonsure (the word means a shaved crown or patch worn by clerics, a symbol of devotion) and is similar to the famous religious icon Veronica’s Veil. Bedgood used these religious icons, like the crown of thorns and communion hosts to communicate contemporary interpretations of religious symbols. She used words with dual meaning to title her works and to explore issues that pointed to the sins of Indulge/Indulgences.
Bedgood’s installations demanded the viewer’s explorations and participation in her work by compelling the viewer to look at the objects and installation arrangement carefully to gain interpretation. The objects she used in the exhibit, as well as the words, were deliberately ambiguous which enabled viewers to have multiple interpretations. In her installation pieces, Bedgood “contemplates the aberrations of human behavior and the capacity of humankind for evil.”
