I Feel Pretty

The artist’s book I Feel Pretty comprises a collection of linoleum cuts from 2012 to 2018.
The black and white series Double Trouble presents a catalogue of iconic sexy-feminine clothing as visual symbols: corsets, fishnet stockings, garters, leather boots, stiletto heels and more. The clothing accessories have parallel and opposite meanings. They represent strong liberated and sexually confident femininity, but also perpetuate the bound and controlled woman. For example, the corset lifts and shapes, but also suffocates, limiting the ability of free movement and comfort.
The series Death Will Not Part Us, was printed on Joss paper, a Chinese printed paper used in burial ceremonies. The first time I saw these papers I was smitten with the red, silver and gold, the delicacy, the unfamiliar design and the connection of this beauty to death. I spontaneously embraced this foreign tradition without trying to delve too deeply into it. It was enough for me to play with the superficial explanation. I didn’t want to deal with respecting tradition, I just liked the papers. Pretty quickly, an association developed with these objects that a western woman, maybe me, would want to take to her grave.
In the new series I Feel Pretty, anonymous, faceless women are presented as objects for the male gaze. Naked, wrapped around a phallic column, they are abandoned to the gaze. The technique of linoleum print leads to a dichotomous result that is similar to a stamp. The bluntness of the black and white and bright red color scheme creates images evoking a road sign or signs that might be used in a demonstration. The medium itself, which necessitates the using of sharp knives, engraving and puncturing of the linoleum board, permeates the planning of the works.
Little Women is a body of work that began as an impulsive response to a commercial for the Perfectline Company. I was struck by the chauvinist elements—the female actors’ excessive smiling, their shrill voiced endorsements filled with sexual innuendo—for kitchen and bathroom fixtures. The rest of the works in the series refer to commercial advertisements that depict women as stupid, superficial, limited and materialistic.