ARTIST STATEMENT
Tantrum, a mixed media series, illustrates and comments on men’s reaction to women speaking out about the challenges they face. The naivety of these reactions are highlighted by combining stencilled images of angry, sexist, misogynistic men (Scott Morrison, Alan Jones) with childlike media. I layered stickers, glitter, rhinestones, and other embellishments to juxtapose these reactions with a child’s tantrum, effectively further reiterating to the audience the immaturity of their responses. By combining cultural and contemporary contexts in an unlikely juxtaposition, Tantrum visually demonstrates some men’s juvenile, naive reaction to women opposing the multitude of challenges they face.
ARTWORK PROCESS
The process began with simplifying images of renowned sexist, misogynistic men using Photoshop. These images were then projected onto contact-covered board and traced. Sections to be painted black were cut out and painted using acrylic. The remaining contact was removed to reveal the stencils of Alan Jones and Scott Morrison. Subsequently, the boards were embellished in a way to create childlike ‘organised chaos’ using stereotypically ‘childish’ materials, including glitter, pompoms, rhinestones, feathers, sequins, stickers, unconventional combinations of pattern, childlike graphics (i.e., smiley faces) and more. Technical and visual inspiration was primarily drawn from artists Ebony G. Patterson and Ben Frost.
