Beautiful Necessity: The Art and Meaning of Women’s Altars
by Kay TurnerThames & Hudson, 176 pp., $19.95 (paper)
Former Austinite Kay Turner has finally gotten serious. After singing of menstrual huts and pantyhose (as band leader for Girls in the Nose in the 1980s), collecting women’s dreams about Madonna (the singer) in a kitschy, girlish volume (I Dream of Madonna), and then gathering the first-ever collection of lesbian love letters (Between Us), Kay is using phrases like “self-created threshold” and “aesthetic of relationship.” Some of us forgot she is actually an academic, having received her Ph.D. in folklore from UT. Silly us. Kay has studied, been obsessed with, and written about women’s altars for the past 25 years. On this topic, the girl is in the know.
In this well-illustrated and -researched volume, Kay argues that for the past 8,000 or so years women have been creating a space in the home to observe and cultivate their connection to the divine. For those of us raised Protestant, where the altar was the clean, spare table at the front of the church where the minister did his work on our behalf, the notion of a home altar can be both exciting and unsettling. But history reveals that women’s hearthside altars are actually rooted in the founding of Christianity and the role women played in promoting this new faith.
In eight chapters, Kay considers women’s relationships with their altars: altars as maternal legacies, as sites for connection, for healing, ritual, and as art. But what makes her findings compelling are the 100-plus illustrations of the altars themselves. Corners and shelves festooned with statues and candles, maintained by Mexican-American women over the course of their lives. Younger women’s creations featuring items with personal connotations — a Superwoman toy, a political button, rocks, bones, feathers — honoring the Goddess or simply some higher part of themselves. Altars dedicated to keeping the memory of a dead sister or mother alive. Wiccan, pagan, Buddhist, Hindu altars gathering the images of each of those faiths. Artists’ interpretations featuring breasts, leopard spots, and even an EKG printout. The variety, beauty, and personality of these altars powerfully and unforgettably convey women’s particular reverence for life. Though lately altars have been somewhat of a fad, Kay suggests that widespread fascination with them is only evidence of their pertinence at a time when many of us have no formal spiritual connections.
Happily, Austin women feature largely in the book. Kay traces her early fascination with altars to Soledad “Chole” Pescina, now deceased, who believed that women’s altarcitos reflected women’s values. The altar creations of Austinites Connie Arsimendi, Mary McIntyre, Shamaan Ochaum, Aina Olomo, Sharon Smith, and Sheri Tornatore are also featured.
Kay Turner will speak about women’s altars on Saturday, November 20, 7pm, at Book Woman and from 11am-1pm on Saturday, November 27 at Tesoros Trading Company.
This article appears in November 19 • 1999.