CLOWNS CLOCKING IN
Clowns Clocking In aims to reflect the darkly comedic experience of working a frivolous minimum wage job during a pandemic.
MODELS: Claire Hancock, Joe Drinkwalter, Robin Kadirgamar
APHRODITE AND PERSEPHONE
Aphrodite and Persephone aims to represent and examine the experience and discounting of menstrual pain through depictions of mythological symbols surrounding the greek goddesses Aphrodite and Persephone.
MODEL: Claire Hancock
EYES OF THE FATHER
Eyes of The Father aims to visually depict how the madonna-whore complex manifests in fathers as their daughters begin to grow up. I set out to starkly display this frequent paternal defect, and through a weaponisation of gaze, condemn the objectification of daughters. My intention with the series was to grapple with my own experience of objectification, depict the societal cycle of sexualization, and through the series, take back the power of gaze.
In my view, sexualization is about power. When you’re a child, becoming aware of your body and sex for the first time, the adults around you have the power to shape your attitudes and understanding. The experience of being sexualised so young by a paternal figure teaches you that as a person with breasts and a vagina, your body is inherently sexual and provocative. This fosters the attitude that your body is genetically erotic, wrong and doesn’t fully belong to you. As the eldest of three daughters, watching my experience mirrored in my younger sisters and AFAB friends demonstrated to me that my experience is not singular, but part of a systemic failing.
I chose to frame the first four images through the lens of the father and in the final five, I aim to express that despite our relative nakedness, neither myself or the child, despite perception, are objects. We are both full-fledged human beings, and now as an adult, I have the power to be seen and perceived on my own terms. Initially Eyes of the Father is just that, a visual interpretation of his perception, but I conclude the series by regaining my agency, and sharing my experience through my lens, on my terms.
prince charming is dead
Prince Charming Is Dead aims to visually capture the mix of feelings present in a survivor after ruining their rapists reputation.
MODEL: Livy Morden
ode to SCIN-2009-501
Ode to SCIN-2009-501 was originally intended to capture the experience of artistic liberation that comes with destroying your own artwork. In my third year at OCADU, I enrolled in Life Study for Sculpture II, where students are required to demolish their work after they create it. That process felt like pure play and discovery, and left me, for the most part, unburdened by my usual perfectionistic tendencies. It felt fitting to exhibit this experience through the demolition of a self-portrait. This term is the last time the class will be offered at OCADU, and will likely be the last time I will have the opportunity to sculpt and create in this kind of freeing environment. In documenting this destructive process, I aimed to capture this liberating artistic experience and through a bittersweet lens, create a lasting chronicle of my nostalgia.
However, in trying to capture this experience, I ended up feeling the opposite of liberated. I suppose it should’ve been clear to me that attempting to manufacture and display an experience defined by a lack of self-scrutiny would backfire. Throughout the process of creating the self-portrait, the knowledge that it was going to be documented riddled me with the same perfectionist anxiety and fear of failure that I felt free of in the experimental learning process. Though eventually proud of the work I put in, the process felt profoundly heavy.
This weighty was exacerbated by the termination of this course and the impending end of my studies. Instead of the series serving as a nostalgic memory like it was originally intended, it now serves as an adamant and determined reminder to strive for play in creation.
ASSORTED WORKS
