HEADLESS : a commentary on female oppression
Solo ExhibitionReese Gallery
St.Louis, Missouri
July 27 - August 17, 2018
Statement
I have always been interested in the female form. Not surprising given our culture’s obsession with it. From infancy our society grows female stereotypes deep within us, seeding themes of control and power. These ingrained concepts result in microaggressions, low self-esteem, sexual harassment, and sexual assault among most women we know.
I am no exception.
My artistic work is a conversation with the anxiety I hold within. It is the representation of depression I have struggled with as a direct result of past emotional and sexual trauma. It is the voice that screams inside of me with no words, only noise, desperately trying to break free from the expectation that I am nothing but a passive object to the male gaze.
Like wallpaper, my life has been full of patterns. At times, calm and tranquil, but painful and guarded for the majority. Repetitive patterns, often tortuous in their tedium and maddening in their inability to evolve. I often feel perpetually frustrated by the ways in which past trauma can become like a parasitic loop I’m unable to escape, sucking all of the energy from me. My work illustrates that surreality, documenting my own lived experiences in bright color palettes and unlikely combinations. You will often see a headless female form effortlessly engaging in a twisted scene, as women are forced to do everyday – twisting and turning, navigating roadblocks of oppression.
I began painting headless self-portraits to convey how systemic female oppression and personal trauma have the powerful ability to remove one’s sense of self. The omittance of the head represents the loss of personal decision making, motivation, individuality and intellect, consent and personhood.
Some have called my work offensive.
Some have called my work confusing.
To those ends, I’ll allow the author of one of my favorite short stories elaborate…
”Behind that outside pattern, the dim shapes get clearer everyday” - Charlotte Perkins Gilman, “The Yellow Wallpaper”
If you open your eyes for long enough, if you examine our reality bravely and honestly, perhaps you’ll begin to see it clearer.
