Unfairest Of Them All

Unfairest of Them All explores body image and modern perceptions of the “body beautiful”.  By investigating the mysterious relationship that women share with their mirrors, the project seeks to reveal an intimate performance between subject and object, between self and other. These women confront their own mortality and the forces that threaten their self-perception. The reflections provoke past memories, predict horrific futures, and provide a glimpse into the female subconscious mind.

Photography, both traditional and digital
Artist’s Books and Visual Journaling
Mixed Media Installations

1999, 2004-2007

Exhibitions:

Body Image:  Animus & Ardor, Aidekman Center, Tufts University, Medford, MA, March 2006

Close Proximity, School of the Museum of Arts, Boston, MA, February – March 2006

The Boston Drawing Project, Bernard Toale Gallery, Boston, MA, 2007 – 2009

The Boston Drawing Project – 10 Years on and going strong!, Carroll and Sons, Boston, MA, December 2009

2005 Artist Statement:

Funhouse:  Women, Body Image, and Self-Perception

This mixed media project is focused on body image and self-perception as experienced by women in Western society.  Playing on the intimate relationship that women have with their bodies via the mirror, the photographs seek to address the full span of emotions.  Melted, twisted and mysterious…to silly, playful and even proud. The viewer becomes part of the images in the black empty spaces that act as a mirror, making interaction impossible to avoid.  The photographs provoke past memories, predict horrific futures, and provide a glimpse into the female subconscious mind.

We have all endured a parade of “beautiful” people with “beautiful” bodies throughout the media.  Our lives have become the target of a continual campaign promoting a hypothetical “body beautiful”.  Self-awareness in mainstream culture has become an understanding that your body will never be slim enough, smooth enough, toned enough, tanned enough…simply never enough!  The challenge is to honestly experience the body, our own and other’s, with compassion and understanding.  The journey towards self-awareness and acceptance  starts with facing the “monster” in the mirror, challenging your perception of the body, and finally discovering this absurd and ridiculous creature can be both healing and beautiful.

Process:

Using suspended sheets of silver mylar, a purposely-distorted reflection is created.  The resulting images can be controlled by the extant of ripples in the surface of the mylar.  From a flat surface that acts as a traditional glass mirror, to a swirling or wavy texture, the images have a range of increasing distortions. The viewer experiences this funhouse as a continuum from a realistic representation of the female form to a frantic, tortured struggle for identity.