Editor’s Pick: Marnie Weber

The Cabin of Mothra Crone (2021)

In Marnie Weber’s film The Cabin of Mothra Crone (2021), a lonely old artist crone lives in isolation in a mountain cabin. Slowly her mental state declines as she paints away the seasons. Unexpectedly, a traveling monkey shows up at her door and she welcomes him in. Together they live happily until a haunting moth spirit changes everything. Marnie Weber created this film in isolation at her mountain cabin in Lake Arrowhead, CA, between 2019 and 2020. As with all her previous films, Marnie Weber developed the costumes, played most of the characters, and created the musical soundtrack.

The video, along with sculptures and paintings, were part of an exhibition at Heidi Gallery which closed this week. The exhibition, Sweet Ravaging Time, revolves around the figure of the Crone, a persona and alter ego Weber has worked with throughout her career. The Crone notion originates from the Triple Goddess deity or deity archetype revered in many Neopagan religious and spiritual traditions. The Triple Goddess incorporates three distinct aspects united in one being: the Maiden, the Mother, and the Crone, each of which symbolizes both a separate stage in the female life cycle and a phase of the Moon, and often rules one of the realms of heavens, earth, and underworld.

With this exhibition, Marnie Weber has created, as always, an uncanny world that exists in a realm between fantasy and reality and invites viewers into an exploration of her subconscious. She is offering her own fictional narratives of passion, metamorphosis, discovery, and magic where women are placed in positions of power and primacy.

The Cabin of Mothra Crone (2021)

Song of the Sea Witch (2020)