(Re)Evolving Door

(Re)Evolving Door (installation detail)

Female roles are becoming less clearly defined and increasingly more complicated. Often we are called on to erase ourselves, what our mothers and grandmothers taught us, and recreate ourselves daily. Work a full day, come home, take classes, take care of the family, your husband, yourself, and all the while looking, feeling and being sexy, strong, and focused. Are our hands perpetually tied by all of these expectations? This process can be draining and somehow refreshing and exciting. Do the same ties that bind us also provide a way to hang on? With this recent body of work I attempt to expose the complicated process of how we see ourselves within this contemporary framework.
This series is ongoing and some pieces are interactive. These drawings can be touched, moved, and removed during the duration of installation in order to gain better access to other drawings on the wall and create conflicting shadows. Recurrent in my recent work are figurative elements of women, flowers, and landscape elements that serve as surrogates, which tell the story of both my own experiences and the every woman. The lack of detail and color provides the viewer with almost endless possibilities for connections they make with the image and its movements and shadows. Beginning with the tradition of drawing the figure, I acknowledge the body and my own humanity. I let the drawings sit in my studio till the pose speaks to me, then I “strip” the drawing of everything except it’s shell or contour line. By omitting so much of the detail, the real work of describing my identity formation can begin. Moving and repeating the prototype drawing creates a sojourn inward, tapping into memories of memories, how I’m feeling in the moment, and future expectations. The options are endless and just like the way I imagine or see myself, the drawing is a process in flux.

Relative

Relative (installation detail)

Relative (installation detail)

Filed under:
3-D, Installation by JodieP