I was inspired to create these images after reading about an exhibition called Mother's Pride:Mother's Ruin 1977 - 1978 by Tricia Davis and Phil Goodall. Taken from the book Framing Feminism: Art and the Women's Movement 1970-1985 by Rozsika Parker and Griselda Pollock. Published 1987 by Harper Collins Publishers.
Section IV Strategies of Feminism,Chapter 9.'Personally and Politically: feminist art practice'
"This exhibition sets out to explore visually some of the ways in which our experience as women is structured through education, employment and domesticity, and some responses to these structures." (1987:293).
What I found fascinating about this exhibition is the description of the processes of the work, the aspects of many of our lives as women, this exhibition makes us draw on our experiences and the issues of being a women. We are collages of our roles within society and its an impact on ourselves as well as others.
These photographs are of me wearing an evening gown that is too large and doesn't fit my body especially ill fitting due to that fact I am not wearing a bra and the images look intimate, however I know that these images are not enough, when considering the work I created within the last module.
This is an area that has always been underlying my work throughout this MA.
Within my work the complex issue of identity and/or identity association is continously being changed and the work alters due to how I explore the issues that develops and moulds my identity taking into account issues within a life time that creates another facet within the cover of identity as discussed in the chapter 'Art and Identity' Heartley discusses the difficulty in exploring identity.
"A more nuanced understanding of identity association. These phases, which may overlap and recur from one movement and one individual to the next, are also reflected in art that emphasises identity, either by celebrating, questioning or recognising it as something that that is ultimately and always hybrid". (2008:242).
The idea of identity is so broad and complex and within my work it can be difficult to justify why identity would interest me because I am not in a minority, however the more I become interested within this area I realise that its influences that create and expand our individual identities.
In the book The Art of Reflection by Marsha Meskimmon she states that "We are formed by an elaborate interweaving of identifications with socially defined roles and expectations.. Furthermore, we may experience contradictory positions within ourselves, some of the roles we 'play' may themselves define us in contradictory ways." (1996:13).
Therefore I began to work into the images using a sharp needle, ink and felt tip, biro, chalk and then added water as well.
I have extended the materials using coffee and acrylic paint working into the images, furthermore I have used not only photographic paper but white card as well.
The results of using these different mediums onto the original photographs and then using photoshop just to brighten and contrast has added extra depth to the images.
Furthermore I have been given a vast amount of watercolour inks which are in glass bottles with pipettes and I have been experimenting with these materials.
I think I am attempting to create work that refuses a stable definition of identity because I am more inclined to regard identity as a complex of overlaying roles within the society in which we live and our private expectations as well as public expectations, these are mixed and thread through which removes the idea of a static definition of identity.
