Milly Berman

I am interested in the experience of growing up as a girl in my American society, and the expectations young girls learn to have for their womanhood. The themes of girlhood, domesticity, home, and memory have emerged in my work. Generally, I have explored both positive and negative sides of each theme in my various works. My personal interest in these themes comes from my own experience as a young girl growing up and coming of age. I have also been influenced by artists exploring similar ideas about womanhood, including Laurie Simmons and Louise Bourgeois. From looking at my exhibition, I hope that the audience will be prompted to think about the significance of societal pressures and cultural experiences on individual girls and women.

I have experimented with several mediums in my exploration of my themes. I have made sculptures, including “Houses on a Street”, using paper as my primary material. I have also made drawings using a micron pen, such as “Postcards” and “Stamps”, once again, on paper. Paper is essential to my work because its delicate nature expresses the fragility of memory and girlhood which I attempt to portray. My pieces “All in One” and “Wedding Napkin” are embroidered, which relates to my themes in that it has a cultural association with domesticity and womanhood. In my embroidery, just like in my micron pen drawings, I have used exclusively delicate lines. The detail which delicate lines allow hopefully shows how much care has been put into the art. Additionally, delicate lines contribute to my portrayal of the fragility of memory and girlhood. Finally, I have used the medium of photography. This medium relates to my theme of preservation of memory, because a photo is able to make a single moment last forever. The majority of my pieces, including all except two, are made on a small scale. I use small scale to create intimacy between the viewer and the piece and to show the intimacy between the piece and myself. Small scale contributes to my exploration of the value of memory, domesticity, and girlhood because the scale implies great value and great care for the object. It also alludes to childhood through association with dollhouses, toys, and miniatures.

The choices I made in curating my exhibition have been informed by my themes. I explore the experience of domesticity and the value of the home in my work, so I attempted to make my exhibition look and feel like a home. By bringing the appearance of a home in the context of an exhibition, I attempted to question the importance of the home and the tendency in my society to ignore or hide women and the home. I attempted to achieve the appearance of the home by presenting my work in a salon style against a backdrop of wallpaper. One of my pieces is a detailed, patterned wallpaper. Instead of presenting it separately, I placed the wallpaper behind my other work. Additionally, I placed all my other pieces either in frames hung on the wall or on shelves which were also hung on the wall. Since my work includes a great deal of intricate detail, the viewer will need to walk close up in order to fully understand its content. I try to use detail to create a relationship of intimacy between the viewer and the art. I intend for the viewer to feel comfortable when looking at my work, especially from afar, because of the appearance of the home. There is no single focal point, but at the center of the exhibition I placed my piece “All in One”. This piece is central because it bridges the gap between the themes of memory and femininity in my other pieces. I hope that the domestic setting I have created for my exhibition contributes to and expands upon the themes within the work, prompting the viewer to consider domesticity, girlhood, and memory in different ways.