METAFORMIA!
Blithe Ophelia Grey, MFA 2024, Painting
My research is deeply rooted in metaformic theory-- examining the human inclination towards the creation of spiritual devices and iconographies that both inform and respond to our material culture. Specifically, I am interested in how these behaviors are intrinsically tied to the advent of menstruation. In the primary moments of early human civilization, the emergence of menstruation led humans to construct distinct spaces; both figuratively, where metaphors were externalized and bloomed into cultural origins, and physically, within the menstrual seclusion rituals that punctuate early human histories.
Within my interdisciplinary practice, I investigate the profound influence that thousands of years of these rituals have had on the human psyche. Using quilting techniques that engage alternative methods of story-telling and history-keeping, I point to the small, prismatic glimmers of the past in our contemporary rituals, religions, and everyday activities that mirror the menstrual cycle and the genesis of metaphor as metaform. Through the methodology of metaformic theory, my work deconstructs notions concerning the thresholds of reality and fiction, or the ancient and digital, and in turn, suggests the body as its own wellspring for knowledge, history, and spirituality.
METAFORMIA! invites the viewer into an environment demarcated by quilted pop-up windows, blurring the line between physical and digital landscapes. As one navigates the space, plastic rainbow beads and pink faux-fur bindings become tools of view-finding, or of divination, to sift through the overwhelm of neon information. The character FAWN GIRL – who appears in several places in the space, ranging from 12 inches tall to 12 feet tall – stares on with her cartoon smile, leaving the viewer to contend with their own implication within the quasi-quilted-digital-space that asks you to play, to explore, and to decipher. Situating oneself between the massive wall of scrawled text and the monumental desktop-screen-quilt, the viewer might begin to wonder who the actual avatar within the space is—…you, or her?
![Installation shot of METAFORMIA!, 2024. Photo Credit: Neighboring States](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5f3c104daf9e6f2b7d93ecc0/63aafd44-a2c6-409f-a1e5-1b5c2e0cb9b2/Grey_01.jpeg)
Installation shot of METAFORMIA!, 2024. Photo Credit: Neighboring States
![Installation shot of METAFORMIA!, 2024. Photo Credit: Neighboring States](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5f3c104daf9e6f2b7d93ecc0/c7897de6-760a-4d7f-a177-8e42ec61c7b8/Grey_02.jpeg)
Installation shot of METAFORMIA!, 2024. Photo Credit: Neighboring States
![Installation shot of METAFORMIA!, 2024. Photo Credit: Neighboring States](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5f3c104daf9e6f2b7d93ecc0/c99a336c-57c9-4ed7-ae83-ed18205a7219/Grey_03.jpeg)
Installation shot of METAFORMIA!, 2024. Photo Credit: Neighboring States
![the long monologue, shaped with words scried from the spiral of sister seekers, 2024. Photo Credit: Neighboring States](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5f3c104daf9e6f2b7d93ecc0/d34cb93e-ef34-43d5-b23f-0ac364cef06c/Grey_04.jpeg)
the long monologue, shaped with words scried from the spiral of sister seekers, 2024. Photo Credit: Neighboring States
![there was a be-spelling blithesome butterfly who lived in a forest that looked exactly like this one…, quilted start screen made with pink faux fur, pink felt, pink velvet, pink satin, lily-white-batting and rainbow-life-string, 2024. Photo Credit:](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5f3c104daf9e6f2b7d93ecc0/583ce09c-ad0a-4567-9430-43caa7997420/Grey_05.jpeg)
there was a be-spelling blithesome butterfly who lived in a forest that looked exactly like this one…, quilted start screen made with pink faux fur, pink felt, pink velvet, pink satin, lily-white-batting and rainbow-life-string, 2024. Photo Credit: Neighboring States
![the clitstory of fawn girl, made with multiple magical metaformic materials, braided bloodjewel, lily-white-batting, rainbow-cord, seeker salts, and glittery girl glyphs. hand-quilted by many seekers with lunar-life-string, 2024. Photo Credit: Neighb](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5f3c104daf9e6f2b7d93ecc0/2fd7a752-b53e-480e-82d0-ffe039d8f172/Grey_06.jpg)
the clitstory of fawn girl, made with multiple magical metaformic materials, braided bloodjewel, lily-white-batting, rainbow-cord, seeker salts, and glittery girl glyphs. hand-quilted by many seekers with lunar-life-string, 2024. Photo Credit: Neighboring States
![lunar rainbow limbo lair, quilted inventory screen made with rainbow-textiles, rainbow-fur, rainbow-life-string, long-rainbow-cord-that-descends, rainbow-dew-drops, and plush-lunar-batting, 2024. Photo Credit: Neighboring States](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5f3c104daf9e6f2b7d93ecc0/27c54e20-dfaa-47e7-a4a5-b09286baa8c3/Grey_07.jpg)
lunar rainbow limbo lair, quilted inventory screen made with rainbow-textiles, rainbow-fur, rainbow-life-string, long-rainbow-cord-that-descends, rainbow-dew-drops, and plush-lunar-batting, 2024. Photo Credit: Neighboring States
![www.blood-bubble-pink-pussy-pod-miasma-maniac-clitbait-genesis-my-ancestors-store-great-depths-in-me.net, quilted ms paint window made with multiple metaformic materials, braided bloodjewels, and ancient ancestral tunes, 2024. Photo Credit: Neighbori](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5f3c104daf9e6f2b7d93ecc0/8967ce5b-9397-46a7-b30d-9248805564b3/Grey_08.jpg)
www.blood-bubble-pink-pussy-pod-miasma-maniac-clitbait-genesis-my-ancestors-store-great-depths-in-me.net, quilted ms paint window made with multiple metaformic materials, braided bloodjewels, and ancient ancestral tunes, 2024. Photo Credit: Neighboring States
![Detail shot of there was a be-spelling blithesome butterfly who lived in a forest that looked exactly like this one…, 2024. Photo Credit: Blithe Ophelia Grey](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5f3c104daf9e6f2b7d93ecc0/798bfc33-75de-41eb-8c35-38442d922c13/Grey_09.jpg)
Detail shot of there was a be-spelling blithesome butterfly who lived in a forest that looked exactly like this one…, 2024. Photo Credit: Blithe Ophelia Grey
![Detail shot of www.blood-bubble-pink-pussy-pod-miasma-maniac-clitbait-genesis-my-ancestors-store-great-depths-in-me.net, 2024. Photo Credit: Blithe Ophelia Grey](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5f3c104daf9e6f2b7d93ecc0/25a603ad-5acb-45fb-aa40-b73007c1c0f9/Grey_10.jpg)
Detail shot of www.blood-bubble-pink-pussy-pod-miasma-maniac-clitbait-genesis-my-ancestors-store-great-depths-in-me.net, 2024. Photo Credit: Blithe Ophelia Grey
Blithe Ophelia Grey
Blithe Ophelia Grey is an interdisciplinary artist, poet, and aspiring menstrual scholar. Her work can be described through many qualities-- such as being overwhelmingly glittery, glaringly pink, evocative of early internet spaces, and endlessly trimmed with rainbow faux fur. Grey is interested in webs, spirals, and points of connection in their relation to lesbian feminism, quantum physics, and human spirituality. She seeks to point to the fleeting moments of those convergences and their role in creating myriad material cultures.
Grey received her BFA in Painting and Drawing from the University of North Dakota (UND) in 2022, and most recently received her MFA in Painting from the Tyler School of Art & Architecture of Temple University in 2024. Grey was awarded the University Fellowship by Temple University and received a variety of grants and scholarships during her time at UND. While at Tyler, Grey co-curated the Dreamtopia exhibition in Stella Elkins Gallery alongside her esteemed peer and close friend, Maxwell Davis, that featured both their work and the works of their cohort that explored the use of fiction and storytelling as sites of embodiment and to imagine alternate realities.
Blithe currently lives and works in Philadelphia, PA, frequenting the used bookstores and antique shops in her neighborhood for historical lesbian literature and vintage barbie dolls.
-
Website: blitheopheliagrey.com
Instagram: @blitheopheliagrey