Exhibition 'Eva, Sara and Hanna. Women of the world' in Biblical Museum
Of many women who play a role in the Bible, we do not know their names. They remain anonymous, or are referred to as "the wife of…”. Nevertheless, a whole number of other women are being mentioned by name. In the exhibition Eve, Sarah and Hannah. Women of the world, artist Caroline Waltman (b. 1970) gives Biblical women an identity. Without getting specific about who is depicted where, she portrays the women in their own habitat. Young women who could have been Eve or Hannah. Older women, like Sarah or Elisabeth. Sisters like Martha and Mary. Waltman portrays their individuality, strength, vitality and also their vulnerability. The photographs have no titles; Waltman chose to simply number them, the way Bible verses are numbered. The images of the women are interspersed with photographs of landscapes, still lifes and details that reinforce each other by means of visual rhyming.
Many of the countries where Waltman took her photographs have geographical links to the Bible, such as Jordan, Palestine, Egypt, Israel, Greece (including Patmos) and Italy. The connections she made between her photographs and Biblical characters are associative and open-ended. Viewers can freely associate for themselves between the worldly portraits of women and the Biblical women.
Which women appear in the Bible? Where in the Bible are they mentioned? And what are the names of the women who are mentioned by name? To quickly make this clear, we present two infographics by British designer Karen Sawrey (b. 1979). One with women named in the Old Testament, and one with women from the New Testament.
