Sunday 11 March 2012

i do not expect to touch the sky...


Opening today, as part of International Women's day/month celebrations organised by Women's Arts Association. Butetown History and Art Museum, Cardiff Bay. 

An installation piece:

i do not expect to touch the sky...
hand made paper, reclaimed slate and wood, leaves, wire

A sculptural installation that began life as a stitched documentation of transient domestication; in a Women’s Arts Association digital workshop (2007) it developed into a digital story, which then became a short animated film that was a feature of an installation shown at Wunderland, (tactile BOSCH, Women’s Day 2011). 
It has merged with the ideas that were acted out as a performance in Bute Park (November 2011) to become what is now shown here.
The idea has travelled from its beginnings as a difficult to tell story of domestic violence to becoming a humorous take on the idea of the woman as 'bird' and high heels as a symbol of the 'woman'.

Heels may conjure up images of sex, dolling-up and wobbling girls, pervy men and women in control; pelvic pressure, engorged labia, twisted ankles, legs in the air.
Does wearing heels empower, sexualise, enhance, control, belittle or fetishise? Does the playfulness cover up the truth, under the makeup and heels?

We flit, we fly, we flee, but we make our way home again, to nest. 
But nests can be precarious.