Curatorial Rationale

Through this body of work I wanted to explore the topic of “the struggles of modern women”. I have a strong interest in social issues as well as humanities and wanted my art to explore the struggles of womanhood in our contemporary society through multiple lenses. I was able to explore issues of identity, power, mental health, and violence through different mediums. My vision for this body of work was to urge the audience to be introspective about the issues that women face and raise awareness for them. Certain issues such as mental health and violence against women are often stigmatised in public discourse, however, they are prevalent and dangerous.

Within the topic of “the struggles of modern women,” I felt I had a lot of freedom to explore all my interests. In conveying these social issues I wanted to use symbols as they add another layer of complexity to the work as symbolism creates strong connotations which I felt would make my work more impactful. I particularly felt drawn to artworks that used hands as symbols or metaphors. One of the comparative study artworks I analysed called “Wings” by Xooang Choi was a sculptural piece that used the dismembered hands to create the form of wings. The symbol of hands can be seen in an alginate and plaster sculptures I made which show the issue of violence against women, specifically in warzones, inspired by a quote from the Deputy Force Commander of the United Nations Mission to the Democratic Republic of Congo, which discussed how it is more dangerous to be a woman than a soldier in modern warzones. I also used women's faces throughout my body of work as I felt that faces can convey so much emotion even when they aren’t making expressive faces. I was able to portray different issues with different body parts, for example, my cardboard sculpture had only a woman's body and explores the idea of identity and self-introspection.

I wanted to group together work that built upon one another and shared the same focus so audiences could see the progression of my ideas. For example, a few of my artworks not only fall under my general theme of “ the struggles of modern women” but also fall into the subcategory of violence against women whether it be in war situations or domestic violence. I wanted to show those works together as they explore similar ideas. I also wanted to spread out my sculptural/ 3d pieces and my canvas artworks because I feel that viewers would enjoy the change in dimensions in the artwork and keep them more engaged. Spacing out my sculptural artworks also encourages the viewers to walk around and view them from multiple angles. To ensure that the audience was able to view the hands from different angles I made clear acrylic stands with a mirrored bottom which will reflect and elevate the artwork so the whole piece is visible. The presentation of the bloodied face sculpture is presented on a pillow that I made using floral fabric and stuffed with old cloth and paper. To explore the issue of domestic violence I wanted to create a juxtaposition in the way the work was presented, a bloody and bruised face on a floral domestic pillowcase emphasizes the brutality of domestic violence and engages the audience. Though my works focus on the struggles of modern women I feel that audiences of all races, and gender identities would be able to connect to the artworks as the search for identity, struggles with mental health and violence are universal human experiences.