Caitlin Mack

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Wnada, Nessie and Me by Mack

Silence by Mack

Scream by Mack

 

My art is driven by a need to understand and challenge how I developed into the woman I am now. As a result of my early puberty and curiosity about my sexuality, I developed into a sexually adventurous young woman. I remember as a child having a physical reaction when I encountered masochistic scenes. I would recreate these interactions with my dolls as a way to understand masochism and to experience those physical reactions again. It wasn’t until my early twenties that I discovered the subculture of sadomasochism and began to research and learn the terms that could define what I was doing with my childhood dolls. Masochism describes a relationship where a person finds sexual gratification from being dominated and over powered by their partner. This relationship is surrounded by a fear and a stigma, and it is that atmosphere I am challenging with my art.

In the video, breathe, where I attempt to breathe water, I am creating a relationship with my viewer through an exchange of power and trust. This video pushes the edge of my physical limits and allows me to draw out the character of my frightened adolescent self, while forcing the viewer to recognize their helplessness and contemplate their response to my intense physical and emotional pain. It is in this interaction that an intimate connection and interplay between my vulnerability and my viewer’s can be explored.

In my most recent body of work, I have created clay sculptures which I consider self-portraits, and used these sculptures as my models and stand-ins for me. In the series Wanda, Nessie and Me, I played with my sculptures as I would have played with my dolls as a child, documenting them with black and white photographs. Through this documentation, I began to embrace this new aspect of myself and to talk more directly about the interplay and exchange of power and trust within sadomasochistic relationships. I have found that these relationships require a very high level of communication and reliance, which has been missing from my own experience of human interaction. By participating with my sculptures in imitating this relationship, I get to experience the interaction of power and trust that happens within the sadomasochism.

I want my viewers question their first reactions to this work and allow themselves to question their expectations of me and of themselves.