The Oval

fig. 1

The oval, across symbolism, mathematics, religion, art, history, and literature, holds a multitude of meanings. Sometimes contradictory, sometimes poetic, a prismatic range of similarities and differences that tesselate together and create a great web of significance. This paper meanders through some of these overlapping points related to the oval and the work in Community/communitas.

Symbolically, the oval ranges from an emblem of life to an omen of great severity, depending on the geographic and cultural context sampled. In many written/oral traditions, the oval represents an egg. As a metaphor, this often functions as the connection between people with uteruses and reproductive essentialism. Because of this, the shape is often feminized and placed in binary opposition to the square. In sacred geometry, it symbolizes decline and ascent, involution and evolution. In particular, an inclined ellipse is a symbol of dynamics and pressure. It also indicates the cosmic egg, as represented by the illumination in Figure 1, by religious mystic, poet, and theologian William Blake. (fig. 1)

fig. 2

In various religions, the shape of the oval, and often the circle, is designated as the halo. Similar to the almond-shaped mandorla is the oval aureola [from the Latin aurea (golden)]. This radiance of luminous clouds surrounds the whole figure in an oval formation. When referring to the halo around the head, it is called a nimbus. The Virgin de Guadalupe and ex votos paintings are the penultimate examples of this (fig. 2)

fig. 3

fig. 4

Historically, the oval intersects community from the earliest and misty beginnings of storytelling and myth-making. (1) We were sitting in a circle to entertain and educate. As our tribes grew and circles widened, we find the archeological remains of monuments and great architectures that brought us together, like the Circus Maximus in Rome (fig. 3). Mimicked by Olympic games and various sports across time is the repetitive use of the oval in orienting us toward spectacle. Still, in contemporary architecture, arenas are activated upon the arrival of crowds, and a spiritual connection to the groundedness of history (Western) is experienced. After the fall of Rome until the 1600s, the Circus Maximus and other buildings, such as the Colosseum, were occupied by various Christian sects. In the massive remains of the Colosseum itself, the skeletal gaps made room for fifteen tabernacles that represented the stations of the cross, all set in curvilinear expertise envied by Masons of later centuries. (fig. 4).

fig. 5 fig. 6

As this essay proceeds through a select timeline, we also pass from communal expressions of the oval to private expressions. Here at this intersection, we encounter English, 17th-century portrait engraving, which favored depictions of the sitter, drawn with meticulous refinement and accuracy in an oval form. This type of engraving greatly impacted modern currency and technology used to print fabric, like the later century's Toile de Jouy, which was made in Marie Antoinette's Oberkampf factory (Jouy en Josas, FR). These portrait engravings would be displayed in sitting rooms and common spaces of the home. Connected to commercial illustration and reproduction from the printing press, the engraved portrait functions in a couple of different ways. Namely, the connection to collections such as the Linnean Society in London, which houses engravings of famous lords, naturalists, botanists, zoologists, and philosophers. (fig. 5) (fig. 6) These images would have welcomed a reader at the introduction of whichever book they had written. Modeling this style and format from printed texts attempts to elevate and parallel the representations of the portrait to the pinnacles of Western culture.

fig. 7

Similarly, in 18th century France occurs the rise of the oval frame. Here lies a connection with the oval to the increase in interior design and decorating, particularly staterooms. Other than painted images, these ovals also encapsulate the rise of heralds/coat of arms. These images and crests create vignettes in ovals built into the paneling of the wall (fig. 7). This continued history of interior decorating further implicates the oval and painting, where it is literally embedded in the structure of the home of the wealthy.

fig. 8

The same occupants of these homes would often have ample leisure time and would have also been introduced about this time to the tambour hoop. The embroidery hoop was not always circular or elliptical in European arts. It wasn't until this century that the square frame traditionally used to stretch fabric was replaced by the circular tambour (French = drum) hoop. (fig. 8) Due to increased trade with China via the French East India Trading Company, more chinoiserie was created and resulted in a myriad of appropriated objects such as the well-known circular hoop. The aristocrat of this time would put great worth into the design of the space they occupy, emphasizing heraldry, and portraits as power, all in these elliptical settings.

fig. 9

England and France in the 17th and 18th centuries were quite influential to the developing colony that became the United States. From the formulation of law to architecture, the shared austerity was translated in its own peculiar ways that could only be described as folk and quintessentially American. Aided in this formulation were a collage of the many immigrants and polycultural influences that built and defined a country in the face of Anglo-Israelism and developing democracy. In the nation’s capital, Francophone architecture in particular is seen in multiple buildings and the National Mall. L’Enfant and his vision would especially define this space. And arguably, one of the most famous ovals, was constructed in 1934, the Oval Office. (fig. 9) Located in a newer wing of the White House, the oval geometry expresses a sense of no beginning and no end– a sacred allusion to the divine. The ‘sacred’ room as experienced by Michael J. Crosbie, “It is a continuum defining a volume that connects past with present with future. There are no corners. This is the way many Americans think of the country itself’s expressive of an historical arc, which is curved… but maybe the most dramatic display of a sacred talisman is on the ceiling. The Presidential seal, encircled by 50 stars, floats above us like a celestial dome.”

While this is a limited examination of the oval, and far from exhaustive, this rhizomatic examination of the shape connects the study of craft, architecture, and history as examined in the work represented in this show. The oval ranges in this exhibition from sculpture to painting, from subject to form. In some cases, the shape represents connection, and in others, it confines in a vice grip. The interpretations of this can vary and, in hopes, challenge or contextualize the collaged representations depicted.

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(1) Although it's not the artist's intent to create a Euro-centric essay, the examined histories here are subject to this exhibition... and as we bask in the radioactive glow of our late-capitalist anthropocene, we are positioned to critique ourselves through a post-colonial lens, as have many educators, artists, activists, authors, and social theorists.