Invitation and Rejection
The spectacular Amor Fati from 1993 also plays on the woman seen as a victim and martyr. The central image is a photographic paraphrase of a baroque painting of Saint Agatha. She was canonized as a result of refusing the unwanted advances of a Roman consul, a heathen who then cut off her breasts in reprisal. Waelgaard's woman holds a bloodstained cloth to her breast, but her expression is of stoical calm and emotional balance. The red stain is picked up by the close-ups of meat and roses in the side panels. Round forms and red colours. At first glance, the work may be perceived as an allegory of woman as the object of masculine desire, but the signs prove to be subversively charged. The aggressive spikes of the frames imply both the crown of thorns and a deadly weapon. Here, the conflict between seductive invitation and flat refusal is further heightened. And with this, the lines of the relationship between executioner and victim cannot be distinctly drawn. A field of uncertainty arises, a dialogue which is, in the end, carried on between the work and its viewer.
Øystein Ustvedt.
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