Vanitas

Installation at Art Produce Gallery, San Diego CA, 2019. Cyanotypes, repurposed plastic, thread. Vanitas is an exploration of the impact of language and the use of words that may distance one from one’s body. In this exhibition, female figures are depicted leaping over carefully arranged still lifes, influenced by vanitas paintings in which beautifully depicted objects have metaphorical meaning.  These still lifes are comprised of objects representing slang terms for female genitalia.  An object from each still life, sewn from transparent, discarded plastic, echoes the lines of the drawing.  In this work we are engaging language – making visual what is usually spoken.  The myriad descriptive words for female genitalia are evidence of the importance and power of these body parts. By rendering these objects as drawings, and transforming them into cyanotypes, we explore and question how language engenders and maintains power dynamics.