Photo's from the Show

One of the Exhibitions

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New Images

Jenna Animation

Caitlin Animation

Chelsie Animation

Jenna, Caitlin, Chelsie: Printed Images

Chelsie

Caitlin

Being raised by two doctors, my views of the human body had no choice but to be strongly influenced. At an early age I asked my mother if she had ever had to stick her fingers in her patients "lower orifices", to my third-grader mind's disgust she answered yes. At that point I thought my parents respectable professions deemed them perverts, touching strangers bodies in what I viewed as very intimate ways. However, my mother explained herself as follows:
Caitlin, a doctor working with people's private parts is like a mechanic working under the hood of a car....and there's nothing particularly disgusting or sexy about the under side of a car. It's all machinery, there is a way things work and a way they don't, our job is to ensure everything is functioning properly.

To think of our bodies as one of the amazing machines that has ever existed is how I choose to view it. The vagina and reproductive system as whole is just one of incredible systems within that machine, especially in its capability to affected by others -orgasms and pregnancy.

Caitlin

Jenna

I have made the conscious decision not to utilize my ability to reproduce at this point in my life. I think that my sexuality is personal, but I would characterize it as somewhat cautions and certainly educated. I do not choose to have sexual relationships without being safe. I have no desire to use my reproductive organs at this time.

The image I chose to fill that space is a tabernacle. I grew up with Roman Catholicism at the center of my life. I attended Catholic schools and went to church twice every week. The tabernacle in the Catholic Church is where the Eucharist is kept. It is a holy container, often ornate and treated with utmost respect. It is a bit intimidating, but sacred. I think this reflects my feelings about my reproductive space. It has been reinforced through religion that sexuality is serious and should not be used without serious consideration. While this has hindered me in some ways in terms of my sexual growth, it has made me smart about sex. I have educated myself enough so that I feel comfortable with my sexuality at this point. While there is a certain intimidating effect of the Church (represented by the tabernacle) that made me scared of sex for a long time, I have grown to appreciate this respect for my own sexuality that was reinforced in a strange way.

New Animations: Caution

New Animations: Socket

New Animations: Stomach

New Prints

New Carvings (Ashley, Moria, Jordyn)

Ashley's Drawing

Jordyn's Drawing

Moria's Drawing

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New Videos Continued...

New Videos Continued

New Videos

New Images, New Bodies

Thoughts on my Final Exhibition

I've been doing a lot of thinking about the shape I'd like my piece to take in a final exhibition. First of all, I'm planning to show off-site with Jenna and Ashley. We are trying to locate a good spot, and obviously a lot of the nuts and bolts will be worked out depending on the exact space but there are a few things that I've been thinking about regardless of the final space we settle on.

So, I had a really great conversation with Danielle the other day and we started talking about the future potential of my project. I have developed this very specific and multidisciplinary practice over the year that I have really come to love. I have been collecting narratives from different people in order to uncover how they consider and visualize their reproductive anatomy that they may or may not be using. I then interpret the images and writing into a relief cut, print the image, capture the image, upload it into photoshop and animate the image in order to create a dynamic and mobile projection, which will be located on a nude body.

I'm interested in using the time and space of the exhibition to expand the realm of my project or rather introduce another aspect of my project to create an experience. So, as of now, I think this will take on the form of an interpersonal reaction between me and the potential viewers of my project. Using my installation and perhaps a concise prompt to influence more people to submit images and words about what they carry inside of them. Basically, I could use the "gallery" space as place facilitate the same kind of interactions I have been having with my chosen subjects with a totally new and random group of people. So now, my project would highlight every single part of the process that I have created over the year.

Over the year, I have been really focused on and motivated to exhibit my project in a way that would encourage or facilitate community interaction. In everything I do, I am very focused and conscious of situating myself and my work in the context of a community. I have always enjoyed making things around other people and this year, I have figured out a way to make things because of my interactions with other people. I think it will be important and help the effectiveness of my project to introduce tangible interactions to the exhibition of the project.

At this point I need to figure out exactly how I am going to position myself in this exhibition. Will I sit behind a table? Will I have a written prompt? Will people see me before they see my installation? I want my presence to contribute to the piece and seem natural and encourage viewers participation...so how to I make sure my presence is completely organic and not...awkward or forced?

Lots to think about...but so far this is what I've got.

This is G-R-E-A-T

Kate Street

Final Animations

Zoe Completed Animation

Ellie VIdeo

New Animations

Images I've Revisited and Re-Cut

Birds #1

Tracey Emin "I Know, I Know, I Know"

Ellie Print

Zoe Print

Katy Print

Phtos of My Studio

I cleaned (!!!) and put up some new work...

A Note for Watching Videos...

Turn off your sound! We didn't must when recording, but I think that ideally the videos will be silent...

Katy

The first image that came to my mind when I thought about my womb and the way I choose to use it and, just as importantly, NOT use it, was a road. Specifically, a road that I can see goes far into the distance, but the end point is unknown. I don't know how long it is, or where it's going, but I'm on it. in the past, many women's lives were in a sense predetermined by the fact that womanhood centered around childbearing and keeping a family. I see this as a set path with clear steps that are in place for a woman to reach womanhood and thus validate herself individually and even more so, societally. I cannot speak to these women's experiences but I imagine they are vastly different from my own.

The road represents not only my movement through life, but also the direction and indirection that I face everyday as a woman in this would. I have chosen not to use my reproductive organs, on one hand, this has given me freedom and choice, I move through this world without (what I perceive to be) the burden or fear of becoming pregnant. I can go laces and do things on my own accord . I can have an education, a career, a life, that is independent of the attachments and responsibility that comes with motherhood. The road I'm on can go almost anywhere and be almost anything. I have no idea where it leads or what will happen along the way. This freedom and uncertainty in some senses depends on my won choice to disable my reproductive organs.

On the other hand, I haven't chosen a vast field or a blank canvass to represent my choice. It is a road, a defined path that directs me to certain places. While I have made a choice to not get pregnant, this does not divorce me of my femininity or the social forces that define me as such. Using birth control does not make me a man, it does not stop society from perceiving me as a woman. This (in some sense) determines what I do, now I act, what I want, and most of all, how I am treated by others. In other words, being a woman (whether or not I'm using my reproductive organs) creates and shapes the road I'm on. I have choices and my life can go anywhere, but there is a bath that will take me there.

A Few Stills