Fine Particles of Solid Matter

Today, women make up almost half of the labor force in the United States at 46.5%. Yet statistics show that compared to men, women spent more than twice as much time preparing food, and doing interior cleaning, and over three times as much time doing laundry as men did on an average day. Even with these domestic obligations, women are still pressured to pursue a higher education, advance in their careers, and be self sustaining. With these Second Shift expectations, women in American society today feel more pressure than ever to find the balance between domestic roles and progressive philosophy of feminine positions. As I navigate my own roles with domesticity, I find myself falling into these same dynamics much like generations before me. I dissect and experiment with these gender stereotypes by adding characteristics of traditional woman’s work such as needle work, colors, and household cleaning tools in attempt to question these given roles to women in American society. Using site specific materials such as dust and sweepings from my home with household objects, I create narrative within my work for people to find a correlation between their own experiences with domestic gender roles and my own. Inspired by the works of artists such as Kate Gilmore and Regina Jose Galindo, my pieces have varied in mediums such as sculpture, printmaking, installations, and performance pieces but all have common characteristics of multiplicity and repetition. The use of repetition and multiplicity throughout my work speaks to these individual moments and experiences as a whole while also reflecting on the methodical and repetitive ways women conduct tasks in their own home such as daily chores and personal hygiene.https://digitalcommons.murraystate.edu/art498/1052/thumbnail.jp