Dissecting symbolism and intention in my latest works

Often when I'm exploring new work I come up against questions that I struggle to answer. In the current series of photos and videos I have been creating I started wondering about some of the symbolism I was drawn to and also the intention behind the desire I have to use women as the protagonists in this particular set. I'm very lucky to have a wealth of thoughtful advice to draw upon in the form of my art peers who don't mind sitting down with me and having a ponder. In this case I called upon the brains of my friends Justine and Anita to think through with me some of these questions.Mary MacGregor-Reid, 2018, Still from video "In the ash that lies at the bottom of the grave, there lies the king’s diadem…"I have found myself fascinated with the act of pouring. In previous videos I have used the pouring of beeswax, of honey, of carbon and I still have a desire to work with this action. I discussed the symbolism of pouring with Jus and Anita who had some similar thoughts to my own and also expanded upon them with some ideas I hadn't come to on my own - highlighting the importance of having other thinkers to talk with!Jus related the act of pouring to having tea with friends, of pouring out a cup for a guest as an act of friendship, of bonding and of interpersonal ritual. She also related it to the act of her mother washing her hair in the bath as a child. I relate to both of these actions as I am an avid tea-drinker and my mum also used to rinse my hair in the bath by pouring water over my head in a sort of bath-time baptism. There is a connotation of caring to these acts and we both mentioned the release of scent and the experience of the sound of water rushing into water. They also seem to be quite feminine acts, things that are often done between women and in the act of caring for others.The act of pouring can be a sort of gift, as the substance leaves one vessel to then be contained in another, as in the pouring of tea.It can also signify blending as 2 or more elements are brought together to create a new substance, as when cooking or in chemistry.There is the cleansing or consecration aspect, as in baptism or ritual anointing.There is also an idea of a substance transforming, which I think is particularly experienced in the release of scent through the movement of the substance from one place to the next. When pouring non-liquid substances like ash or carbon there is an explosion of dust that comes with the action.Mary MacGregor-Reid, 2018, Still from video "In the ash that lies at the bottom of the grave, there lies the king’s diadem…"I talked to Anita extensively about my use of women as the protagonists in these new works and why I felt that it was important to the work, but could be a problem. This work is not specifically about gender, it isn't a political statement, but at the same time I felt that my use of female characters could be interpreted in that way, bringing in content that I didn't really want to be there. This took us around to the symbolism of pouring again and whether in classical art this is seen as a female gesture. Outside neoclassical concrete garden sculptures, we weren't really sure if this was true, but we were reminded of the fact that the cup is very definitely a symbol of the female.Both water and the cup or chalice are recognisable as symbols of the feminine. This gives me a bit more insight into where the pouring symbolism along with female protagonists is coming together in this work. Now that I've unpicked my unconscious decision-making a bit it has made me very interested to go back and reshoot all the scenes with male protagonists once I've finished shooting with women to see how that would affect the work and the viewer's experience of it. I've also started thinking about the sound and scent aspects of the action of pouring and how this could work within the context of these or future pieces. I've worked with both sound and scent previously so it seems quite natural to think about how these experiential elements could integrate.Mary MacGregor-Reid, 2018, Still from video "In the ash that lies at the bottom of the grave, there lies the king’s diadem…"