LADIES OF LEISURE
From 2010-2011, I created this body of work for the Drawing and Painting Graduate Exhibition at Ontario College of Art and Design University.
Artist Statement
How can a piece of feminist art provide a site of seduction and imagination? As a female artist, it is important to me to investigate this question from a gendered position. I employ collage in my work because it allows me to use an assemblage of different representations of women to create new and exaggerated female forms. My interest lies in how experimentation in collage and mixed media can provide a space of sensual engagement for the viewer. The mixed media surface uses various textures to reflect on a wide range of references: from glamour models to the barbaric centerfolds that exist in the exaggerated world of fashion.
Through my research and artwork I aim to understand how the historical representation of the ‘mysterious seductress’ applies to contemporary female identity. My work investigates the thinking, manners and expectations of upper-class Western women from the Enlightenment to today in relation to seduction. I am interested in looking at why fabric and patterns, portraiture and fantasy, underwear, hairstyles and headgear played - and continues to play - such a significant role in the identity, power and sexuality of women.