Holding the Space, Jordan Danger
A ghostly white female figure with a black crow's head holds her hands around her abdomen; inside, there are etchings of birth control devices, pills, and an angry creature that symbolizes the artist's endometriosis-riddled uterus.
Title: Holding the Space
Artist: Jordan Danger
Date: 2025
Medium/Materials: Ceramic
Dimensions: 45 cm x 20 cm x 20 cm
Form/Genre: Ceramic sculpture
Key Terms/Subject/Tags: Endometriosis; Uterus; Hysterectomy; Loss; Patient narrative; Reproductive system
Artist Statement:
Jordan Danger uses sculpture to express what cannot be easily put into words, physically forming intangible ideas and emotions that wordlessly feel familiar to many viewers, especially women. Clay has become her primary language because of its responsiveness, its emotional immediacy, and its ability to hold gestures in a way that feels almost somatic.
Much of Danger’s work centers around somatic human emotions and universal experiences. Her long journey with chronic illness has informed her narrative and the direction of her work, especially in recent years as Danger enters midlife and connects with a growing sense of righteous fury about what she has endured as a patient, a female, and a disabled person.
Much of her sculptural work centers on anthropomorphic and animal-inspired figures. This removes identifiers that might limit interpretation or trigger biases, and invites viewers to see themselves within the work. These figures often appear whimsical, beautiful, or playful at first glance, but they carry deep observations on the zeitgeist and current culture when explored further. Viewers frequently tell Danger they were first intrigued, then quietly haunted by her work. This duality is intentional: she uses whimsy and fairytale as a point of entry into deeper emotional and psychological terrain.
Cultural Context / Story Behind the Work:
This piece was created as Danger discovered that she was losing her twenty-year-long battle with endometriosis. As her doctors pushed yet again for a full hysterectomy, they also told her that ‘only she could make this decision’. Danger made this piece as a meditation on the issue. She spent time reflecting on the treatments, implements, and medicines she had forced into this part of her body, trying to tame a monster that lives within her; it felt like fighting evil with evil. This crossroads weighed heavy on her, as Danger realized that she was finally going to lose her battle, admit defeat, and allow the doctors to create a genuine void inside her where creation was intended to live. This piece stands in stark contrast to the calm and sometimes cavalier way in which doctors have addressed the idea of removing these organs while providing her with temporary, traumatic, and ineffectual treatments along the way.
Rights for this Image:
This digital image is licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0. You are free to share it for non-commercial purposes, as long as you credit the artist.
Learn More:
Instagram: @jordandangercreative