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synthetic.) When it works, (it doesn't work all the time) and [[strikethrough]] and [[/strikethrough]] the tension and opposition between the two materials transfers some of the aspects of one to the other (metal becomes "soft" and silk becomes "hard" as in Malcolm X No. 3) to form a unity of opposites. 

Parallel to this is the use of hard and soft materials as symbolic male and female elements. I have always been fascinated by the "couple" (Adam and Eve, 1958): the male/female equation extended to its wider boundaries of soft/hard, negative/positive, convex/concave, black/white, aggressively/passiveness, all the way to Ying/Yang and Tantra art. 

Metal is basically male; silk, cord, wool, braiding and weaving are traditionally female, not only symbolically, but historically these materials are worked by women in traditional societies including African societies. The wool as well as the wax which I work in, are built up in layers by accumulation rather than by the traditional subtraction. Nevelson and Marisal Resse in wood, Bontequecon in canvas and steel aramatures, Nancy Goodman in stitched leather, Niki de St. phalle in paper maché, Dorthen Tanning in plush and Germaine Richier in direct plaster. Of course, there are women sculptors whose approach is definitely masculine in the architectural sense such as Beverly Pepper, Penalba, Louise Bougeois and Dame Hepworth. But frontally, accumulation direct relation to floor and wall and a certain sensuality of materials and surface all which appear in my work, seem to be a common thread, at least amongst certain women sculptures. 

Finally, there is an accidental or automatic element in the working of the wax folds and textures. Some of the folds are indented accidentalally by the folds of the plastic sheets on which I make my wax sheets. These are used in much the same way as "automatic" writing or collage; selecting, recutting and combining. 

For a long time I was greatly influenced by Germaine Richier (Walking Monster, 1966) and I have been greatly influenced by Egyptian sculpture; both by its