Artist Statement for Confabulations of a Mighty Fine Girl 2009

To confabulate is to fill in memory with fabrication and believe it to be true. This has dual meaning in relation to what I am doing.  I am turning memories into actual fabrications and wholeheartedly believing I can animate them through my process. My installations are based on memories. These memories relate to a larger female experience, dealing with issues of insecurities based on being pigeon holed into a stereotype or being inadequate in relation to an archetype. I aim to transform these memories into visual experiences, but more resolved empowering experiences. My goal is to reach a state of confabulation, in which these reclaimed transformations become true, overriding the actual memory.

I want to challenge female image constructions through the glorification of figures that are more in sync with a realistic view of female conditions. I appropriate traditional iconographic motifs from sources such as early fertility goddess statuary. I utilize preexisting formats that are established as being powerful strategies for promoting ideals, but instead I romanticize idiosyncrasies.

The small offspring play an important role of demonstrating the cyclic power of an image. Their exaggeratedly underdeveloped bodies convey an extreme vulnerability and innocence. Their mouths wide open in awe, indicating the beginning stages of being affected by these alternative female figures. I filter through the lens of a strong and hopeful girl who wants to present a new definition of beauty to persevere over oppressive notions of the female body.