Anna C.

Women

Curatorial Rationale

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Divine Feminine is an amalgamation of all my works from the past two years revolving around the theme of women. Aiming to explore and dissect the nuances and idiosyncrasies of femininity and what it means to be considered a “woman”, I tackled concepts such as body image, hair loss, and the female reproductive system upon others. I often pondered on ideas like “What does it mean to be a woman?”. How much of my identity is based on physical traits? How could I portray women in unconventional ways? These questions made me reflect on myself as a woman, thus, I included several self-portraits in this exhibition. I took inspiration from works like Sarah Leonard’s Venus Fly-womb and Judgment. Similarly, I was inspired by Frida Kahlo’s unapologetic approach to nudity, mental, and physical pain in a woman. Some of my artworks revolved around women in different forms of pain; grief, heartbreak, bruises, and cuts. 

Throughout my creative process, I used pencils, embroidery, digital illustrations, and oil paint. Pencils were my most used medium because they allowed me to capture the finest nuances and details of skin and flesh. The individual lines I could make with each stroke of the lead were intentional, and this medium made me feel like I had the most control over the expressions and emotions of my subject. I also used embroidery as this medium allowed me to create actual texture with my works. Through this medium, I could use physical, tangible depth as a means of conveying my message. This medium also allowed viewers to gain multiple perspectives of my artwork. My works are on the relatively smaller side. I aimed to study and explore the specific details that made a woman feminine. There was a consistent use of organic shapes throughout my artworks that depicted the women’s bodies and faces while lacking in harsh lines. I opted to focus on certain aspects rather than rendering the whole picture.

In creating my works, I worked with the mindset that to convey the essence of femininity, I had to incorporate the “ugly”, the “pain”, and the unsightly. My works included self-portraits of myself with blood, bruises, cuts, and mangled skin. Although it would seem “unfeminine” at first glance, the different reasons for these injuries are what make the subject feminine. Thus, I believe in my choices to render women in ways that were not filtered or digitally altered as commonly done today, but rather to show the brutal and raw perspectives that come with being feminine.

Through my artworks, I explored different viewpoints of femininity such as pain, unrealistic beauty standards, glorification, worship, ugliness, and degradation. I hope that Divine Feminine leaves my audience with another perspective of femininity, one that can help them understand how multifaceted femininity is, and how it cannot be confined into certain stereotypical notions. This will allow for a better understanding of oneself or a woman they know. I presented my artworks in three themes to show the development of each perspective of femininity. The themes are women’s insecurities, women in pain, and women as the divine. This evolution and metamorphosis of femininity in my exhibit are important so that the viewer could digest each work in a guided manner while still being able to connect the pieces themselves. A curatorial choice I made while creating my exhibition was including and emphasizing my self-portraits. Some of these self-portraits in pain allowed me to highlight not only my personal experiences but to also show a sense of familiarity and kinship with the viewer. Making myself the subject instead of using a random subject, allows the viewer to resonate with my message more because they know me as a living, breathing person. This adds a sense of intimacy and vulnerability to the exhibition. I exposed my insecurities and weaknesses, which makes the artworks all the more meaningful and representative of my message. This exhibition is an emotional sigh of relief.