Artist Talk – Siobhán Byrns

Artist Siobhán Byrns will discuss her exhibition, The Green Ribbon: Chlorophyll Prints by Siobhán Byrns. Byrns’ ephemeral chlorophyll prints on Hosta leaves critique the romanticized ideals imposed on women, particularly as wives and mothers, highlighting the weight of expectations they bear and the difficulty of establishing trust in a world where boundaries are too often ignored or violated and their existence as replaceable or disposable. The exhibition title is taken from a children’s story, The Girl with the Green Ribbon by Alvin Schwartz, published in the children’s anthology In a Dark, Dark Room. The tale has deeper origins as far back as 1840s France. In all of the tellings of the tale, the ribbon represents a closely-guarded secret, known or unknown to the female wearer, who has something deeply personal and tied to their identity in this thread. Similarly, in the more mature version of this tale by Carmen Maria Machado, The Husband Stitch, the female narrator has a green ribbon around her neck that she explicitly tells her husband not to touch. In all the stories, including short stories by Alexander Dumas and Washington Irving, the ribbon/necklace is a symbol of the woman’s boundaries and the mystery of her autonomy.

Reception. FREE and open to the public.