Vulnerability of an Archon

Cotton, Vintage Collar, Ironing Boards, Table Tops, Head Board, Shelving

2017

The visual history of photography is rooted in two roles, that of the subject and that of the viewer. Traditionally these roles have belonged to the male gaze as viewer and the female form as subject. One place this gaze has been contradicted is in the realm of the public monument, specifically looking to those of the south in which men whose leadership is rooted in violence and power of economy are the main focus of gaze. What begins to be questioned when these roles are placed in disjunction? What does it mean to place a womyn's body on a pedestal, as art through history has done, but in the manner of power as a male leader of the past? Who will become the viewer and what will they feel is their role in viewing a live female body that is placed on items of the home? 

The work created features a 5 foot pedestal like structure made out of deconstructed home furniture. Specifically dressers, ironing boards, shelves, cabinets and tables. During the duration of performance the structure featured the artist upon the pedestal. The figure's body covered by a cape made of loosely woven cotton fabric. The cape during the performance draped to the ground and in by way covered the structure. A small distance from this structure there was binoculars for viewers to use in order to see the monument in its details.