Mad Women
Mad Woman Custom Made, Limited Edition, 8x8 original prints, fabric cover, book sculpture
See more here: https://www.nancygracehorton.com/books
Mad Women Artist Statement
Mad Women is a response to the portrayal of a women waiting for a man. Each image is a story. Together, they represent the repetitive way women continue to be used in the media—without a distinctive voice or individual power. I am completely seduced by the colors and styles of the 50s and also place my subject in this time period to emphasis the lack of change.
My own experience growing up in the 60s and 70s did not mimic this representation, my parents operated as equals. In college during the 80s I used Killing Us Softly by Jean Kilbourne in a marketing presentation as an example of how women are objectified in the media and felt at that time this issue was being taken care of, and soon discovered, it was not. The inner feelings this cultural suppression caused me personally was unexplainable, until I read The Chalice and the Blade by Riane Eisler. This demystified my underlying pain being in a man’s world.
Martha Rosler’s, Semiotics of the Kitchen, Cindy Sherman’s photographs critiquing identity, and Francesca Woodman’s self portraits are visual artists that spoke to me at the time of making this work.
The photographs are meant to spur feelings to compel conversation that may unfold about the roles and behaviors women inhabit or are assigned.