I was invited by Ringwood Gallery to tease out the tensions between functionality of objects and their gender associations. To take as a starting point the ideas fixed to an object which imbue meaning beyond their intended purpose.
Predictability

The purse is often represented as a badge of womanhood, old fashioned and traditional in status; a metaphor for women’s status.

In this Idée fixe exhibition the purse symbolises the heart, opened with absolute care to expose its tempting centre; closed through the domestic sense of predictability, sameness and reliability; and taking flight with an open heart releasing confidence, wellbeing and wonderment.

In this Idée Fixe exhibition the purse symbolises the heart closed through the domestic sense of predictability, sameness and reliability.

Flight

The purse is often represented as a badge of womanhood, old fashioned and traditional in status; a metaphor for women’s status.

In this Idée fixe exhibition the purse symbolises the heart, opened with absolute care to expose its tempting centre; closed through the domestic sense of predictability, sameness and reliability; and taking flight with an open heart releasing confidence, wellbeing and wonderment.

In this Idée Fixe exhibition the purse symbolises taking flight with an open heart.

As my own future has been enhanced though education, I made the Open Book images in celebration of the term ‘blue stockings’ the coloured stockings worn by male intellectuals in eighteenth century Britain.

The history of women’ who sought to enter the educational arena were often given the derogatory title of ‘blue stockings’ thereby condemning them for assuming a male prerogative.

The term has come to represent strength, tenacity and determination as shown by the original ‘blue stockings’ that were the first women to enter tertiary education and therefore gave a new sense to female empowerment and equality.

Inspired by my 2006 association with Curwen Print Studio in Cambridge, UK, I embarked on a change of style with this body of work, complementing the photographic with the hand drawn. These hand drawn, hand printed lithographs on photo plate play with the royal colours of purple and gold as well as the historic colonial symbols of the lion, serpent and the dragon. Through the use of symbols and British pub titles, this work not only attempts to challenge my style of mark making but connect with both my French and British heritage