Body abstraction
Artist’s statement
Although Western cultures frame the body as private and allocate different amounts of personal space around it to form boundaries between individuals and others, Merleau-Ponty (1962) insisted that the body is never isolated from the world but instead is always engaged in it, observed and touched by others. Furthermore, the body is a social entity, given that it mediates all of our interactions with others and with ourselves.
The female body influences a woman’s sense of self, especially her image and identity. Without a body, there is no self. In the most basic sense, a living body provides a home for the self, and the brain creates the mind, which produces the sense of self.
Women’s bodies in today’s reality are perceived by many as sex objects or as objects of beauty and are subject to constant evaluation and judgment. As a woman, I don’t see a female body as such. It is beyond being sexual. It is divine perfection, a piece of art, a beautiful flower. Women are walking portals, an opening, an invitation for creative energies to descend, emerge, and join life anew. We need to take better care of our bodies and value them more and know that this is a very delicate and powerful tool that we as women have been given.
This series embraces an intimacy that is fearless and empowering. I focused on my own personal experiences as a woman and embraced a vision of the nude that is brave, simple, and honest. My goal was to create an altered depiction of the body, to communicate the inner essence of the female figure by simplifying and depersonalizing it. I wanted to encourage viewers to search beyond what is on the surface, to help them increase their understanding of the aesthetics of femininity.