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Painting/ Drawing |
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Jessica Plattnerclick image to enlarge
My recent work uses self-portraiture to question my identity in relation to traditional gender roles. I grew up taking feminism for granted, and I came of age alongside the “third wave,” a movement created by young women in the early 1990’s to revitalize the ideals of earlier feminist theory. My generation has been lucky to have the freedom of choice to create our lives, careers, and families in new ways, with the expectation that we can have it all. As we get older, certain choices become more pressing, such as the decision to have a baby or not. For a woman, this decision is the most intimate mixture of the personal and the political. Using a variety of imagery, my new paintings deal with these concerns. The figures in these paintings are often surrounded with elaborate patterns from wallpaper and fabric. I want these patterns to be both pretty and oppressive, to reflect an uncomfortable relationship to the domestic sphere. In this way I can also play with the illusion of space on a two-dimensional surface, which is the great magic of painting. The question of space is also important in discussions of gender roles, as we constantly recreate our identity in reaction to the various private, public, or professional spaces we inhabit. Like the decision to have a baby or not, my work is political on the one hand, entering into feminist debates about desire, body, social construction, and the hegemonic ideology of motherhood. On the other hand it is sharply personal, expressing my deep anxiety and ambivalence over my life decisions. link to La Grande Observer Article
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| Eastern Oregon University Art Department | ||||
