Represesntation Of Interrelation Of Electronic Media, Young Women And The Current American Political Climate

Project Summary

I will visually illustrate the interplay of electronic media, young women and the current American political climate, by depicting ways the Trump administration’s oppressive actions and policies toward women penetrate the private sphere. President Trump’s choice to use electronic media as means of communicating to the country has further eroded the boundary between the public and the private; news and social media convey constant information and are part of what would otherwise be a private space. My studio research will explore affective elements of consciousness and relationships between American women, politics and the position of electronic media within private spaces. I will project my personal experiences and abjections with the exchanges between these entities onto my illustrations. In doing so, I will attempt to capture the moment where a disembodied set of policies pervades a fleshy body.

My goal is to convey my experiences within this triad, depicting moments in which public and private, the personal and political, collide through electronic media. The format of my exhibition will be a series of 20-30 mixed media works that will occupy the McMaster Gallery. I will use image transfer techniques (acetone and mod podge), oil paint and digital media. My process begins with collecting images of women, interior spaces, technology and news headlines via the internet and my own drawings or paintings. I then collage images together to create a digital composition that constructs an interior space and depicts the figure interacting with a form of technology that features a policy that directly affects women. The image is then printed and transferred onto wood, canvas or paper. I then push and pull elements of the work using oil paint and a limited color palette to set a tone. To finish, select pieces will be enhanced with a thin coat of resin.

Personal Statement

Women have been affected by the Trump administration and its policies that condone sexism, racism, ableism, poverty, xenophobia, homophobia, and bigotry. My work explores some of the many policies created since Donald Trump’s confirmation that impact women’s progress. As a woman who has endured a sexual assault, I find that the president has become a trigger of that personal trauma. It is difficult to watch tv, to be on social media and to be alone at home. However, I am only one of millions of American women who have reported Trump to be one of their triggers of trauma. A trademark of Trumpism is contempt for women. My work empathizes with them by displaying the chaos and combustion of America’s culture in a realist way from a female perspective. I want to be a part of the larger conversation about the place of politics in the lives of American women. My rage and onset depression propel my passion for creating work that mediates my experience of the personal and political. In doing so, I hope to contribute to this part of history as a documenter, as an advocate and as an artist/activist.

Artists

Cindy Sherman

Cindy Sherman is a contemporary photographer. Her work explores a wide range of roles and cultural stereotypes in America which depict women in a negative light. Sherman questions the sultry and often oppressive influence of mass media over individual and collective identities. Through methods of self-portraiture, she creates a multitude of characters and alternate personae meant to overturn stereotypes about women. Sherman’s goal is to calls her audience's attention to the truths that exist behind images in an incessantly public "plugged in" culture. I connect most with Cindy Sherman’s work through my interests in solitary figures, staging narratives and commenting on incessantly public culture.

Hannah Höch

Hannah Höch was one of the first female photomontage artists to surface during the formation of the Dada movement. She explicitly addressed gender roles and political discourse through her practice of collaging photographic elements from different sources to create new statements. Her interest was in challenging the status of women in society which motivated a long series of works that promoted the idea of the "New Woman" in the era, in which women take their place next to men as their equals. Commonalities between her work and mine can be seen in our photomontage practice, critique of politics and the idea of a women taking a new identity in society.

Gregory Crewdson

Gregory Crewdson is a photographer whose work concentrates on tension between American suburban landscapes, nature and domestic spaces. His work is known for being carefully staged and cinematically lit. Extreme contrasts between darkness and light offer a melancholic narrative that leaves room open for suggestions of the scene. Characters in his constructions seem as if they are they might be oblivious to their environment. In turn, his work blurs the line between fiction and reality, allowing a reveal of psychological and emotional states. What I admire about Crewdson’s work are his carefully curated scenes, dramatic lighting, and character portrayals.

Njideka Akunyili Crosby

Njideka Akunyili Crosby is a contemporary photo-collage painter. Her work navigates the cultural differences between her adopted home in America and native in Nigeria. Crosby layers paint, fabric, and imagery that she transfers and collages onto her surfaces. She constructs domestic interior scenes using collage that often include personal family photos, cutouts from Nigerian newspapers and magazines, and commemorative cloth. Together, the elements describe a world of events and history, both collective and personal, that speak to different times and places simultaneously. Her practice of photo-collage painting, construction of domestic interiors, and ability to create a space for two different topics to converse simultaneously inspire my work.