SHOOTING BACK

The tension between what is happening inside my head and how I act on the outside is what my work is about – this border between private and public. In trying to reach this frontier I make use of my own body and present fantasy self-images. Indoctrinated, obsessed and fascinated by this view of the ‘sensual seductive’ woman as sex object, I try, almost obsessively, to comply with this image through self-portraiture. These fantasy images are reminiscent of desires, fears, temptation, seduction, violence and sex – self-images as sex objects, devoid of any commercial frills; knowing full well that I can never compete or live up to the image. The mirrored self-images are my way of reacting to the imitated and fake media images that constantly call upon our imagination without ever intending to be taken too seriously. By switching the ‘subject-object’ relationship, I try to deconstruct this call’s effect without being victimised by it. Hester Scheurwater