​

​

Through discussions with my mother, I discovered that we both hate our bodies and this self-loathing seems to extend back generations as she relayed her own mother's relationship with her body to me. With this idea in mind, I wanted to focus on generational self-hatred and how it passes from mothers to daughters, specifically when it comes to contempt of one's own body. This body shaming and self-contempt contributes to an innate inability for myself and other woman to properly show ourselves, including our own mothers, love. If we can't properly love ourselves – extension of our mothers – then how are we supposed to love them? Moreover, if I grow up seeing my mother hating herself then how am I supposed to love myself which is in a sense a reflection of her own body? 

​

Continued Thoughts:

​

In the summer of 2019 I discovered two things: One, a Salvador Dali-esk charcoal drawing of my Mother created by my Late Father. while looking for things to connect us past his death. Two, that both my mom and I hate our bodies. 

 

In the Autumn of 2019, I decided to re-create my father’s drawing as a sculpture . This was done in both an attempt to keep his memory alive but also as a means of self-reflection.

 

By constantly re-creating Dali's work how far does appropriation extend and how far can I push it? i.e. First by my father and now me.

 

 

Through the act of inflating and deflating, the sculpture reflects both the death and rebirth of my father through his artwork while also touching on issues of generational self-hatred within my family’s shared body. Once deflated, the body reflects an outsider’s view of my mother’s body. Meanwhile, when inflated the body is exaggerated to great lengths. This exaggeration of ‘largeness’ representing the subject’s body dysmorphia that comes hand and hand with an unhealthy self-hatred towards one’s own body. The viewer is invited to reflect upon this issue when viewing the inflating/ deflating sculpture of a distorted woman’s body.