THE SPACES WE ARE NOT
This Series centers around the space that exists between our innate sense of being and the multiple, and shifting, culturally-constructed identities society projects on the self. This space is the contested ground where identity politics play out.
The Spaces We Are Not explores and provokes the void between our essential self and the complex and contradictory identities society projects on the individual, manifests in stereotypes, commodifies by mass media, and adjudicates through social media. Here in this space is where shame insinuates judgment, and where judgment constructs a crippling silence.
In this series I want to frame the evolving self and its struggle against the vulgarities and injustices that are promoted by the identities society constructs and projects. The human body and Barbie, the iconic toy prevalent in the acculturation of girls (and for that matter boys) for the last 60 years, are the two primary vehicles of cultural production used in this work, exploring themes such as beauty as bondage, the commodification of the body, the fragmentation of the self, and hybridization.
*All photographs are works in progress in the early stage of development. Most will be eventual photographs for purchase, some will become paintings.