Mar
27
4:00pm
The Nun's Cell as Mirror, Memoir, and Metaphor in Convent Life: Donna L. Sadler in conversation with Nell Ruby
By Charis Books and More/Charis Circle
Charis and Agnes Scott College welcomes Donna L. Sadler in conversation with Nell Ruby for a discussion and presentation of The Nun's Cell as Mirror, Memoir, and Metaphor in Convent Life: Study of the Models of Nuns' Cells from the Collection of the Tresors de Ferveur. This event is co-sponsored by the Agnes Scott College Department of Art & Art History.
In the eighteenth through the early twentieth century, French nuns from various orders created miniature simulacra of the cells in which they slept, studied, and performed their devotions. Each diorama contains an effigy of the nun, a prie-Dieu, devotional objects such as a crucifix, handiwork, and artifacts to foster study and contemplation. This book examines the lives of the brides of Christ as depicted in these dioramas, proposing that the material objects found in the chambers trace the contours of the collective and individual identities of the nuns who created these cells. Viewed as a type of memoir, the cells furnish the sisters a stage upon which to rehearse the meaning of their lives. The dioramas create a tension between the private and public presentations of the self, between verisimilitude and self-fashioning, and between reality and representation. The book contextualizes the miniature cells within the larger discourse of gender, identity, self-representation, monastic devotion, and the power wielded by the aesthetics of scale.
Donna L. Sadler taught primarily at Agnes Scott College and her research focuses on medieval art ranging from Reims Cathedral to late medieval sculpture from the regions of Burgundy and Champagne. Her books include Reading the Reverse Façade of Reims Cathedral: Royalty and Ritual in 13 th -century France (Ashgate, 2012), Stone, Flesh, Spirit: The Entombment of Christ in late medieval Burgundy and Champagne (Brill, 2015), Touching the Passion---Seeing Late Medieval Altarpieces through the Eyes of Faith (Brill, 2018), and The Nun’s Cell: Mirror, Memoir, and Metaphor in Convent Art (Brepols,2023).
Nell Ruby is a Decatur based artist, citizen and teacher. 2021 marks her 25th year at Agnes Scott College as a professor of Art and Art History. In her artwork she constructs houses where windows, doorways and television screens sit in the liminal space between inside and outside, imposing questions about protection, isolation and connection. Working fluidly between flat schematic drawing, projected filmic light, solid (translucent) object and even performance, Ruby’s work engages the viewer in an unsettling dialogue about power and complicity. Ruby is interested in engaging a creative process to think through, envision and produce images and objects that challenge and build culture.
This event is free and open to all people, especially to those who have no income or low income right now, but we encourage and appreciate a solidarity donation in support of the work of Charis Circle, our programming non-profit. Charis Circle's mission is to foster sustainable feminist communities, work for social justice, and encourage the expression of diverse and marginalized voices. https://donatenow.networkforgood.org/CharisCircle?code=chariscirclepage
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Charis Books and More/Charis Circle
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