Dawn Woolley Manchester Metropolitan University : BA (Hons) – Fine Art Printmaking - 1st Class. Website: http://donnaandclaire.com For sales, commissions and to send comments to the artist click here
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Artist Statement : The Doll’s House ‘…Our
home has been nothing but a playroom. I have been your doll wife, just
as at home I was Papa’s doll child; and here the children have been
my dolls...’ This project is driven by my desire to satirise the gender specific nature of children’s toys and the stereotypes they reinforce. After visiting toyshops and observing the division of ‘girls toys’ (cookery sets and dolls) and ‘boys toys’ (tool belts and trains) I felt compelled to make a response. My work serves to
illustrate the function of gender in day-to-day life. I aim to examine
the social construction of gender, as a form of learned behaviour that
takes place during childhood. As they develop, children mimic their parents,
forming ideas of socially acceptable gender roles for men and women. The
act of playing becomes a gender performance, little girls pretend to look
after the baby as little boys build spaceships and fix cars. Women are
viewed as wives and mothers, and men are seen as providers. I will parody the notion of artifice and play by making ‘cut out’ self-portraits, which will be placed inside a doll’s house and photographed. This method of working imitates the layering process of my previous work, which was created using adobe Photoshop to digitally replicate myself. Rather than producing a flat photographic surface that suggests 3 dimensions, I have documented photographs within a 3 dimensional space. Self-portraiture serves as a tool that I use to examine my own use of gender. The act of becoming the ‘active male subject’ and ‘passive female object’ in each piece subverts normative gender ideals and demonstrates my capacity to perform multiple gender roles. I hope to disrupt the idea of the ‘ideal male spectator’ and create a transgender viewing position in which each character is objectified and identified with equally. List of Exhibitions : 20th Nov-22nd Nov
2003 281 @ Great Northern, Group Show Great Northern Building, Deansgate,
Manchester Manchester Metropolitan University : BA (Hons) – Fine Art Printmaking - 1st Class. Website: http://donnaandclaire.com
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