Chorus / in vain I will away
medium: c-type photographic print
size: full and half size editions are available
More information:
It began with Dante's Divine Comedy.. images of purgatory and hell... The treat of what could happen to one's senses, the inability to escape such a destiny.. a nightmare..
2026 update.. it's been a while. I feel that after all this time has passed I can finally can be honest: This work was born from my experience of being stalked and objectified over a total period of 12 months. For some reason I felt that I couldn't plainly state that back in 2009-2010 when the work was created. I was afraid that this origin story was too embarrassing and told the world that I was a silly woman who got herself stalked.. I didn't want to be a victim. But in hiding a key reason of what drove me to make this art work, I silenced myself in a way that perhaps I shouldn't have done. But I again, I was determined to not be 'the victim', that's not the identity I wanted to build for myself.
I was also afraid that these stunning photographs wouldn't sell if my collectors knew more of the backstory. (I sold a few full and half size prints at a London Art fair and one to Goldsmiths University for their collection. - I perhaps shouldn't have taken it out of the frame before delivering.. that was a little of a strange choice of me..)
Since 2010 my accomplishments have one by one disappeared from the digital archives of galleries, curators and wherever else they appeared.* It was a big dream.
Back to the old project description below, you can see how hard I tried to fit into the Arts world. It was great while it lasted.
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Fusili's painting of an incubus sitting on a sleeping woman, who writhes in nightmare fused with his poem of how in vain she wills away also influenced this project. As did Ciaroscurro painting and a now distant past in working in Physical theatre.
Serious concerns within this work are my long-term involvement in working with the body in unconventional ways; a conversation with classical painting; a keen interest in political - societal concerns developed from an engagement with folk tales, mythology and religious parables.
To me the work is politically informed, the value of being human, the ease with which humanity is lost, dehumanizing takes place all too easily, and normality is in state of flux in which loss of identity of another easily occurs un-noticed, un-objected. My personal fear is fed when I perceive the fragility of an individual in society but I live with an undercurrent of optimism with which I believe in the strength of the potentially same individuals.
Another political position of the work is its engagement with the female body searching for ways of claiming it as universally significant body not representative of female concerns but universally human concerns. Attempting to distance a female body from the; easily falling into narrow enclosures of; feminist discourse is generally a problematic endeavor, but I am searching for ways to speak about humanity without falling into league with a gender camp. Of course feminism is in this time of recession a concern of refreshed urgency.
This project is trying to address a universal aspect of timeless and also very contemporary human condition.
Be it the literary journey of Dante through purgatory and the circles of hell in Dante’s Divine Comedy or parallels in contemporary life, the ugly and the beauty of human experience and capability.
I don’t think I propose answers or fixed positions in my work, rather questions, observations, sometimes serious, at other times with elements of humor. I search and I always find more question which lead to further searches. I work at highest possible quality across a spectrum of mediums, incorporating drawing, film, photography, installation, light, ambience. I locate my practice in concerns rather than a particular medium.
If you have more questions about the work or if you are interested in the project for exhibition or purchase please contact me using my secure contact form on my website: CONTACT FORM .
Thank you to Kiwoun Shin for the photographs!!
This project was also invited to this group exhibition in Greece:
Locus Solus III, Benaki, Athens, Locus Solus, 2010
