Artist Statement

I am an investigator.

My artistic practice isn’t about grand statements, instead it digs out alternative context and narratives within existing media. I like to examine images, to pull them apart and see what's underneath. It becomes a process of dissection, an autopsy. Women’s narratives, including my own, are a constant theme in my body of work. They also pervade my scholarly interests as an art historian and writer. I often find my art practice merging into my research, and the resulting art becomes a physical manifestation of that scholarship. I want to know what happens when the autobiographical is examined under the lens of collective experience. Stories repeat and become increasingly familiar. Even if they aren’t mine, I can find a piece of myself in them.

My process as an artist hinges on repetition– not just editioning prints, or carving texture in clay– but the act of making ad nauseum. I get lost in the labor of it all.

My current body of work stems from the appropriation of print media, specifically luxury, high fashion advertisements. I employ a modular collage technique, working directly on a scanner bed to build imagery, akin to monotype printmaking on plexi-glass. Through image appropriation and collage I invert the fashion ads, taking images of women meant to be consumed and shift the context. They are no longer objects of consumption, but instead acts of confrontation. Each image is digitized, color channels separated, and then reprinted by hand using CMYK screenprinting techniques.

I am fascinated by the impact of print media on culture. How print media can influence our mood, our outlook and our identities through repetitive exposure. With screenprinting I regain my control over aesthetic propaganda. I deconstruct it, and find its roots. Through this labor process print media no longer holds the same influential power over me. I can reshape it, subvert it and reconstruct it into something new. Even if the image remains the same.

At its core, my work is an exploration of what I call “Postmodern Girlhood” – the moment as a woman, when you realize there are no real objective truths. That trying to be “good” has just been a method of control. My work is a shedding of skin. A removal of deeply ingrained belief systems. It reveals women’s narratives that thrive in a world bent on our destruction. It is about taking power back.