Mat[t]er Refusae et Dianthii

Mat[t]er Refusae (2025) is a series of seven digital photographic composites that function as self-portrayals disavowing likeness (Orcutt 2022). Each work superimposes a symbolically significant flower upon discarded domestic detritus contained in a crumpled white pedal-bin liner. The Latin title conflates mater (mother) and materia (matter/material), invoking new materialist discourse, while refusae, the refused, the rejected, names the central provocation: what happens when women age beyond cultural usefulness?
The series emerges from practice-led research examining the Madonna as a recurring feminist motif. Earlier doctoral work identified the female imperative to be a mother as foundational to my experience of self and identity, with Marian iconography serving as a symbolic vehicle. The flora chosen for Mat[t]er Refusae, rose, lily, carnation, palm, orange, pomegranate, and dianthus, directly replicate those associated with the Virgin in the iconographic tradition, each carrying emblematic weight: grace, sorrow, devotion, bond.
A further, critical layer was introduced as each bin liner contains a discarded consumer product whose branding co-opts the same Marian symbol: Cadbury's Roses, Eli Lilly weight loss pens, Carnation condensed milk, Palmolive body lotion, Terry's Chocolate Orange, and a supermarket pomegranate offer. This coincidence extended the research beyond its original feminist-iconographic field into feminist ethical territory, raising questions about corporate appropriation of sacred feminine symbolism, the plastic waste of mass consumption, and the ecological cost of bodies, particularly ageing female bodies, managed and medicated by an extractive economy.
The visual conceit of the bin-liner emerged from astrological self-reflection (ARTstrology Empowered Artist Workshop, 2024) and a mapping of pejorative terms for older women, old bag, crone, hag, whose clustering around decay, animality, and lost sexuality is well documented (Lakoff, 1973; Schultz, 1990). Suspended against a neutral grey ground, each composite refuses gravity and narrative, here dianthus are digitally superimposed on the liner containing discarded cans of Carnation milk. Matter that has been refused refuses, in turn, to be merely rubbish.