Patterns can be used as disguises. The functions of disguises can turn you into something you are not or enhance someone you are. In my artwork there are places that both conceal and reveal what is happening. In this series I use silhouettes of the female figure and mask them with collaged flowers and birds. I feel that it is obvious that these are female figures, but their identities are more of a mystery than their genders. The faces themselves are vacant and without features to erase race and ethnicity making the focus on the gender as a whole. The mythology of women is something I am interested in and I am trying to illustrate here. Overall these images act as questions of identity, but mainly they are questions of female identity. I am wondering now if they are too 'pretty' and if that is a negative thing in contemporary art?
To be honest... Even though the features are erased from the faces, the hair still labels them as "white" females. It is possible that I am also coming to this conclusion from the patterns and designs you have chose. They have a victorian style to them.
ReplyDeleteI would sugggest playing with a more diverse range of patterns. Find patterns that you are not necessarily attracted to right away and find a more diverse selection of profiles of different women. Keep experimenting. This has great potential.
Having just read your manifesto, I can imagine fish or butterflies where the faces are. Possibly more natural forms in the background.
ReplyDeleteThe colors and patterns are beautiful- just a bit more strangeness or a little more fierceness...