Dom Esthetica

 

The following portraits document the physical, spiritual and emotional journey of a woman striving to excavate and preserve an authentic version of herself while grappling with the clashing expectations of both the lingering internal influence of a dogmatic religious upbringing and the enormous external pressure of a Western cultural framework rooted in antiquated patriarchal ideologies. 

 

The figures are rendered completely or partially nude and in high detail to reflect the historical artistic and religious obsession with monopolizing and dictating the function and form of the female body. The repetition of the same individual in each portrait simultaneously represents the steadfast presence of an authentic “core” self and the deeply imbedded human tendency to fixate upon the elusive idea of physical perfection and the feminine ideal, particularly as it pertains to contemporary, Western women. 

The animals are a consistent allusion to themes of domestication and hierarchies of dominance; in each portrait they represent the ever-shifting struggle of the subject to manage the expectations placed upon her by the forces at play.