Reclamation

Artist’s Statement

Reclamation (2022) satirises patriarchal ideals of the female body through ‘burning’ and letting fall his ‘bra’s’ of expectation that define her as soft, flexible and owned. In their place, a harder, stronger self is created.

In this ceramic, sculptural installation, I toyed with the idea of paradoxes through making something that is conceptually and physically soft and transforming it into something hard. This being a bra now made into a porcelain object made from slip-cast via the burnout method. Thus, inspired by the ‘freedom trash can’ of 1968 that involved burning ‘instruments of female torture’ in second-wave feminist protest, I burned my bra’s to reclaim my body. This phantom relief from patriarchal ideals is lived through the suspension of ceramics.

In juxtaposition with this, the ‘softness’ of the knitted mohair displayed strewn across the floor underlines the literal and conceptual ‘fall from grace’ of patriarchal expectations. Further, I attempt to challenge specific qualities and characteristics men have imposed upon women, such as the motherly ideals associated with the act of knitting. The coat hangers made by one part mould-making make overt the female experience of theatrum mundi, as life is just wondering what costume or personality mask we will be forced to wear next. Further, the use of fishing line to hold up the subjects of the artwork embodies this puppeteering of all those who live in the peripheral to the patriarchy. Ultimately representative of the aforementioned, the whiteness of the above is obstructed by their ‘colourful expectations’ of the saturated below.

Eva is a multi-disciplinary artist that mostly works with sculptural installations. Her works are concerned with the political, exploring how the body, the brain, gender, sex & sexuality and the changing nature of religion are intrinscically related to such. The aforementioned functions as an instrument to confront and inform her audience. Heavily inspired by Yoko Ono, Oleg Kulik and Caroleee Schneemann, she is drawn to immersive artworks that interact with the viewer both intellectually and physically.

Having always been drawn to art, Eva begun at COFA UNSW in 2020 to pursue her creative interests.