I am exploring the ways in which women are gender-coded at work and in our society as part of my studio work in the MFA in Visual Arts program through the Vermont College of Fine Arts. One day at work I noticed they had changed the bathroom door sign. It no longer said 'WOMEN' on a brass plate. Instead, there was an ADA-compliant sign that had been slapped up where the brass plate was pulled down. They hadn't even bothered to re-paint the door so the ghostly remains of WOMEN were left on the door. I found the new sign slightly disturbing as the figure in it was in a triangle dress. How many women do you know wear triangle dresses to work? Isn't that what 3-year-old girls wear to church on Easter? I felt sad for her and oddly identified with her. I wanted to give her a cute dress...or something. And then I realized that there was something here, something profound. Signs, signifiers...all that post-modern language came to mind as I thought more about this figure. I drew scores of sketches as I developed my ideas. Shown here is the first painting from the Girl Sign Series.
1 comment:
Very interested to see where you go with this!
Post a Comment