‘State of Her’ is a 25 metres long canvas in 8 panels to function as an installation.
What is the state of her and what might a ‘State of Her’ a female State, look like? I choreograph and stage these figures to demand attention with all their strictures, trappings and codes of ‘femininity’ – they display gestures of freedom and expansiveness to assert their autonomy. My work has long explored the idea of bringing women centre stage, to depict her as main protagonist in opposition to her being coerced: culturally as well as physically. Through my juxtapositions of historical and cultural references, I have been developing a hybrid, global visual language of representation of women over many years.
If it’s true that gender is constructed and performative then it’s a masquerade, a struggling to coexist: if you’re born a woman, there are so many roles to play. These women have a punk sensibility, they are uneasy on the eye. They confront.
To paraphrase Barbara Kruger: a woman’s body is still a battleground.
This work feels like my ‘Opus Magna’ and will require a big interior space; I envisage the canvas panels displayed on freestanding security fencing panels. The canvas has been upcycled twice from two different festival events, it bears the marks and traces from previous drawings and is a development of ‘The Anti-Fashionistas’ from 2015.
Banners installed in courtyard for Open Studio July 2024
