Voice As Agency

Created as part of my MFA thesis In Pursuit of Non-Objectification from Massachusetts College of Art and Design and later expanded upon for later exhibitions at the Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art and Spark Gallery, Genealogy of Hair and Voice as Agency are a response to the male gaze. Women learn to view themselves through their male counterpart’s gaze; we objectify ourselves based on the male standards of beauty.  In hindsight, I believe my interest in this subject stems from my youth and having a mother that was always conscious of her appearance.

The content of my work is portraiture, specifically portraiture of women. I often use myself as the model. As both the creator and the muse, I attempt to control the gaze—male or female—as I am the object and the creator. The concept within the portraiture deals with objectification and non-objectification of the female form. My work shows the removal of the female form literally and/or metaphorically by obscuring the figure through disguise.

While the identity of the women become secondary, what remains within each piece is the presence of femininity.