Abigail_Gunnels

artist : statement

            “Sketch her presence………she represents perfectness; hence we never see her defects…….” Christian Bok. 

Through my artwork I am able to deconstruct my own experiences, engaging the viewer in a dialogue about personal expectations, limitations, self-awareness, and respect.  The objective of my artwork is to challenge the viewer’s level of comfort with mundane and possible embarrassing content.  The humorous undertones suggest to the viewers to laugh at themselves by provoking them to laugh at the content. The work is often motivated by conversations and/or comments made about me to me. By means of performance and photography I look at the relationships I have with my own body, food, family, friends, lovers, and even strangers.  An autobiographical experience is an outlet for understanding my own self and in return is a response to a woman’s daily distrust with herself. 

            In the artwork a viewer will find commentary on female concerns such as physical appearance, quantity, serving size, and consumption of food, societal expectations and personal relationships.  I illustrate these anxieties in an absurd manner in order to communicate my concerns with female expectations.  Examples of work speaking to these concerns are found in such performances where I eat ten bags of potato chips in an hour, dig a trench, “wedding trench” while wearing a wedding dress, or recite a monologue about a phone, about love, and about loss.  With photographs, I have taken a self-portrait every morning when I wake up for over three years, I take pictures of myself wearing constricting undergarments and I photograph myself on the scale each day.