Date of Submission

Spring 2023

Academic Program

Studio Arts; Global and International Studies

Project Advisor 1

Lothar Osterburg

Project Advisor 2

Michelle Murray

Abstract/Artist's Statement

The Plexus; a site where divided nerves–blood and vessels come together–an interwoven combination of parts in a system. I would like to offer a critical intervention into international politics by employing visual language in a space constructed and bound by semantic language. playing with the fluidity with boundaries, inscribed as natural revealing they are there.

Collage reveals the relationships between one another, disrupting the linear mode of conduction and transmission. To collage, I am avoiding exclusionary mechanisms, working with gaps, holes, layering and lapsing of meaning. I am queering by obscuring rather than clarifying. Not only am I queering the intimate, but the International too. I am physically disrupting the state boundaries, revealing where one state and society ends and another begins. By collaging one shape next to another, color next to color, I am forging the relationship of boundaries. There is a tactile, crafty, interaction happening when I collage; bridging the spiritual and the political. The bridge that connects these two is made up of the erotic- the sensual- those physical, emotional, intuitive expressions of the deepest parts of myself. Not only is the work a collage of material, but a collage of many individuals' ideas and political discourses in which I am consumed by. The checkered occurs in most of the work as a literal translation of order into good and bad. Operating as a binary, yet has a quality of everything being connected through a balance of good vs bad. What if the order that grounds us, began to be unsettled? Textiles operate as a public and private; collaging textiles subverts notions of craft for me. Creating a new kind of culture, linking the heritage of women, thereby transforming images of the female body. There is reclaiming of power as I paint a feminine figure into existence- a redirection of narrative as well. My hair has acted as a source of privilege, and freedom, consequently facilitating competition between women. Red hair is sexualized, and embedded with meaning of passion and boldness. While operating against me in the way it was constructed too, I have found power by embracing the femininity of long red hair. So when cutting my hair, I initially saved it, with intentions to subvert its inscribed meaning.

Thank you to the many women who have paved the way first, and the many who inspire and support me in my personal life. There is a deep power in our connection and these conversations.

Open Access Agreement

Open Access

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.

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