ARTIST STATEMENT
My current studio practice sits at the intersection of feminism and environmentalism and looks to the relationship between human animals and non-human animals. I am looking at the overlap of feminist and vegan critical theory that discusses consumptive culture and objectification in language and “the absent referent” in literature. My work is inspired by research from The Sexual Politics of Meat by Carol J. Adams, which has become the classic articulation of the hidden connections between meat eating and patriarchy, and between vegetarianism and feminism.
In the solo exhibition, Of Flesh and The Feminine, a series of eight ageless ceramic life-size femmes, depicted through torsos, and inspired by the Rococo hold up heads with enormous baroque fantastical coiffures and operate as pedestals for the gigantic meat bouquet of animal fragments and accoutrement. Atop the head sits metal woven 'cages' or upside down French revolutionary era pocket skirts holding cornucopias of synthetic hair, tassels, horns, faux flora and ceramic cast drumsticks, wings and feet.
For artists, there is nothing more currently pressing, than engaging in discourse about the earth and all its inhabitants. This exhibition explores environmental issues through eco-social engagement that is anchored in community-led development and uses art to draw the community into talking about and acting on social, political, or environmental issues. This exhibition creates an opportunity to support dialogue to bring about social change that goes beyond the exhibition space.
