Polaroïds and mold

Incipit - A core part of my art is based on the refusal of being a woman. I long ago abandoned my body, for it has always recalled a subaltern condition -  a constant objectification that I have desperately tried to escape. By not listening to my body, by trying to slip into a rational, masculine mold, by minimizing emotions that were always deemed “too much,” I gradually erased myself. My work became ethereal, aesthetic, turned outward toward others and their stories, as if distance could protect me.

These mold-covered pieces emerged out of necessity and obligation, as if insisting on the artist’s return. For women’s bodies have always been territories claimed by scrutiny and control. Cast as lesser, imperfect, or unworthy, they become canvases for others’ discomfort; spaces where strangers feel free to voice disdain or erase their presence entirely. 

The project questions the value society assigns to women’s bodies through a process of mold alteration. The mold itself holds a delicate tension - at once repulsive and vibrantly alive - becoming an unexpected ornament, an unsettling beauty that mirrors the artist’s own painful experience. It is a process of making peace, of creating space, of allowing the often objectified body to repair itself.

Text adapted by Angeliki Tsoukaneli