Agent of protection, impresa of fertility and gastronomic delight of aphrodisia … Oysters aren’t wanting symbolic virtues. Unfortunately, figurative lore holds little sway against the damning impacts of human activity on marine ecosystems. As a consequence of overfishing from bottom trawling, the population of oysters has dropped by 85 per cent over the past century and today the species teeters getting ready to extinction. 

In Fawn Rogers’ larger-than-life series of sea personalities, these clammy curiosities are imbued with recent meaning. Yoking vital themes of extinction, eroticism and ecofeminism, her paintings are an urgent reminder of climate and human rights emergencies and an eloquent testimony to the truth of life that operates beyond our possession. 

“Oysters are each very fragile and highly sensual,” Rogers tells Dazed. “It’s really easy to ignore other lifeforms – just like the little spider in your shower that you concentrate on killing, but it surely desires to live as much as you do. With these paintings, I’m trying to position the human in patchworks of vibrant ecologies. I need to feel the delicacy and complexity of the tangled tension and vulnerable webs of life that surround us.”

The term ‘ecofeminism’ has existed inside our vernacular because it was first coined by Françoise d’Eaubonne in 1974. As a branch of each feminism and political ecology, it conflates the disenfranchisement and oppression of ladies, people of color and the poor with the decimation of the natural world. But never has the phrase been so starkly visualised than in Rogers’ majestic creations. Hard exteriors are cleaved open to show delicate folds of mollusc flesh seductively inviting us to dwell on the primal world, death and sex. 

“It’s really easy to ignore other lifeforms – just like the little spider in your shower that you concentrate on killing, but it surely desires to live as much as you do” – Fawn Rogers

“I feel that the forces of patriarchy oppressing female-identifying and non-binary people also exploit the natural world,” says the artist. “On this geological era, our planet is a huge crime scene and we’re all implicated. I’m concerned about finding ways to unleash emancipatory and sensual possibilities that will embed us more deeply in truth.”

On a bigger scale, Rogers explores the profound conflicts between human nature and the natural world to critique power because the currency of the Anthropocene. In “Poisonous Harmony” figures commingle with raw, natural forms corresponding to shells and fungi, the evocative title an allusion to the part all of us play on this messy state of existence. 

“I’m attempting to be present in a world that’s being destroyed and filled with suffering, and I’m a part of that destruction,” she reflects. “Once I paint a large clam floating on a brightly colored, monochromatic background with its plump tongue protruding, it’s darkly funny to me. It’s each sexy and gross to take a look at, and I actually have to kill it, consciously or unconsciously, to survive. We’re purported to have a conscience, and also you’d think we might use it for making a higher world, but we don’t. As an alternative, it’s, ‘Let’s go to Mars!’ It’s grimly ironic.” 

She continues: “For me, my work is liberatory. It makes me aware of the powers that emerge between people and the world’s ecosystems. I’m concerned about a future evolution of humanity with empathy, less repression and destruction.”

Photographic contributions to the series of the artist in her studio atop a dappled horse allude, for the primary time, to Rogers’ Cherokee heritage and her ancestors’ violent removal from the unbuilt world. The artist responds to how climate change exacerbates the difficulties already faced by indigenous communities with abrupt beauty where the oyster – harvested in her forbearers’ native Oregon coast – is evocative of all life, it’s oozing assurance a mockery of human morality. 

Experienced as photorealistic depictions of Bivalvia from afar, at a better view Rogers’ works are composed of painterly shapes and forms that enjoy obscenely erotic and darkly humorous imagery. 

In “Our Lady of Guadalupe”, the artist claims the sacred yet repressive image of the Virgin Mary in gooey vitality. “On this painting, you’re looking at Mary’s giant sex. However it will not be a desecration,” reflects Rogers. “I see it as a celebration of reality, a way of honouring life. I desired to subvert the myths which were written by men and supported by women, myths which have oppressed women across history. Poor Eve. Poor me!”

“I desired to subvert the myths which were written by men and supported by women, myths which have oppressed women across history” – Fawn Rogers

Rogers’ indulgent and tragicomic commemoration of sexual pleasure finds tactile appeal within the image of the oyster, concurrently difficult the patriarchal paradigms which have allowed for injustices against women, minority groups and the planet.

“Eroticism on this time is fraught with scary implications,” reflects Rogers. “We’re so atomised as a species and faraway from our origins that placing sexuality alongside environmental destruction almost feels forbidden. But I like things that feel forbidden. I need the paintings to attract you in and spit you back out. To trigger thoughts concerning the fragility of life and the equality of all people. The splendour of sex. The fantastic thing about the pussy!”

Fawn Rogers’ Boil, Toil & Trouble shall be shown as a part of the Expo Chicago from April 13 until 16 2023. 

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