Arrangement

This image is from a series I am calling “Arrangement.” The images depict organic and sensual matter, paired with objects of sexual control both in Still Life and self-portraiture. The series explores power and performance in domestic relationships. I wanted to play with an aesthetic that is visually appealing and yet conveys an uneasy sense of something taboo around what is comfortable. The visual tropes I choose remind me of an idyllic sense of the “traditional homemaker.” And yet just under this domestic stereotype is another fantasy of a powerful, sexually dominant woman, only seen in the privacy of the bedroom. The duality in these female arc types connect through a shared sense of performance. “She” is both the curator of the domestic space and the pleasing object within it. The images were shot in my studio in L.A. where I have built sets to suggest a theatrical performance. The scenes in this private-yet-public performance are documented on color 4x5 film and represent moments of, seduction, vulnerability, and power. The connections and contradictions between these themes affect the lives of women and girls across multiple types of difference, including race and sexuality. This dynamic therefore extends beyond my white feminist perspective, to hopefully unify the intersectional feminist conversation and explore the struggle of femme energies as they navigate love, power, and the imposed objectification of the hetero masculine gaze.