DEGREE SHOW 2017

This body of work, comprising of a series of delicate graphite drawings (various sizes) mounted on an installation of large-scale, energetic lino prints (59 x 84cm), propels the viewer into an uncanny space of strangeness where the familiar contemporary female ideal is executed in unexpected ways. The bold, stylised eye motif which adorns the walls represents ‘the digital gaze’, the show and tell aspect of social media, where one can look curiously and judge, all while remaining silent and hidden. The soft and delicate graphite drawings offer a commentary on the notoriously rigid and superficial beauty standards which exist for women today and reflect on the vulnerability of women when exposed to our image-obsessed contemporary culture. The female faces in these drawings are dainty and almost ‘doll-like’; their inherent ‘perfection’ has been altered by various levels of distortion – mutated body parts, enlarged proportions, glitch compositions and layered faces, melting into one another, acting as an uncanny play on unrealistic ideals. Stripped back from the harsh, glossy, and colourful world that is typically representational of the media, we are confronted with a more fragile and vulnerable side to the female.