This project was born from a desire to investigate the concepts and symbols of tampons. These sculptures were made of different types of metals instead of being made of white cotton as they are in real life. The initial aim was to simultaneously present tampons as objects similar to bullets, thus conveying a sense of violence towards the female body, while also presenting them as valuable objects, since they do ameliorate the discomforts of women's physiology. It was also my intention to add another layer of meaning by using a material that historically is attached with the idea of currency. The goal in making these pieces was to trigger in people, independently from their gender a different way of seeing this object and everything that it symbolizes. The often feared or ignored tampons, are now glamorized as sculptures.
This last piece of the tampons series discusses the relation between fertility, body fluids, and repulsion. The metaphorical fluid represents the body organicity in a sterile manner. Avoiding scatology, the piece brings a new view of the subject matter.
The first piece of the tampon series. This piece glorifies and personifies an everyday object. Tampons are now war heroes who passed through the bloodiness of women's physiology.
Drawing Classy mocks and comments on the classical art teaching. While the 3-D shapes evoke a typical observation drawing arrangement, the faux marble pattern simultaneously resembles classical antiquity and postmodern emancipation from the "good taste."
Gallbladder stones are the pearls produced by the human body. Through the surgical removal of them, the body is born again. This rebirth is compared with the mythological image of the Venus being born from a sea shell. This piece is made of natural sea shells, wooden cubes, and gallbladder stones.
The Eyeliner installation approaches the historical understanding of the line within art in a humorous manner. In this piece, a variety of fake eyelashes depict the line of the horizon at eye-level. Thus, it transforms the eye onto the line itself. Eyeliner also touches on subjects related to femininity, man-made lines, and the relation between the organic nature of the body, as well as the straightness of artificial lines.
Nó is the Portuguese word for knot. This project aims to celebrate the line not as a perfect form, but in its crooked, entangled, and organic version. Nó is a series of woodblock prints intended to be exhibited as a print installation.
In this print, several facets of the concept of home are depicted. While the scribbles carry a naif and childish quality to the pattern, the overlapping of them creates a visual confusion. Unlike the impression of a safe and comfortable shelter, this print displays home as an overwhelming and suffocating environment.
These small scale ceramics sculptures depict abstracted breasts. They were intentionally made to be unpaired, thus underscoring the uniqueness and celebrating the asymmetry of the body. The medium of ceramics was chosen because of its association with vernacular home objects, thus approaching the body as a symbol of one's home.