I Also Fight Windmills

I Also Fight Windmills is a photographic series inspired by literary texts written by the modernist, trilingual and largely forgotten author of Polish origin Sophie Gaudier-Brzeska (1872-1925) who died in a mental asylum in the UK. I visually reimagine Sophie’s story of a migrant woman from Eastern Europe who travels west to Paris, New York and London to find employment, and more importantly to fulfil her creative ambitions of becoming a writer. The rigid rules of the old societal order, lack of opportunities for women, poverty and disillusionment lead to her mental instability. I Also Fight Windmills explores the themes of displacement, creativity, loneliness, lack of emotional support and social exclusion. It investigates the psychological aspects of frustration and entrapment in a restrictive social role, and sensitively depicts mental disturbance. I utilise impersonation and the performative aspect of photography to bring to life an undeservedly forgotten female writer and her works, stigmatized in the past for her incarceration in the mental asylum. Through enactment and staging I recreate the emotions elicited by extreme living conditions, and expresses them in black and whi