Together with Miriam Schapiro, Judy Chicago’s pioneering work in feminist education was inspirational to many of that generation.

Bringing together 400 volunteers and five years in the making (1974-1979), Judy Chicago’s ‘The Dinner Party’ elevated materials traditionally associated with women’s crafts such as embroidery, weaving and china painting in a triangular table arrangement. 39 place settings celebrating women in history became an iconic installation, challenging patriarchal constructions of women. Sculptural plates, as metaphors for female genitalia, heralded female eroticism and vaginal imagery.

Wanting to pay homage to Chicago’s work and empowered by feminist thinking, Francine Scialom Greenblatt placed her metamorphosed creations at a table in a surreal scenario.

Many subsequent concerns appeared in this early work such as the horizontal red tablecloth, prescient of many checkerboard/games to follow.

Similarly, distant mountains place the bucolic scene specifically in the Cape (visible from the artist’s studio) and hint at many architectural and personally meaningful sites in nature.

The fluidity of gender, race or social class, underscored by dinner guests, was important to the artist. One can only guess at the age or inclination of the protagonists on stage as they defy our gaze by asking the question: ‘who is watching whom?’ No victim here, the guests are as curious as the voyeur.

Erotic energy is introduced by the nakedness of the central figure. Various degrees of dress or undress subtly suggest the frisson to follow. Gloves, revealing or concealing, and footwear became more specific as the domestic became eroticised with time. Phallus like appendages, hands, exposed or hidden, and feminised shapes developed as the orb held by the figure on the right promises alchemical magic.