Ava Stoughton
untitled, 2021
Sandstone clay, borax crystals
10 x 20 x 6.5 inches
This piece, inspired by female power and beauty, is meant to evoke a feeling of strength within oneself, even when our exterior is wounded. I challenged myself to create a large scale body to make it look more realistic. This larger “canvas” allowed me to delve deeper into the meaning through its details.
Every aspect of this piece has been carefully thought through to either convey an idea or elicit a feeling. I chose to use a gritty clay to create a rough but mundane exterior as a shell for the crystals growing inside, so as to draw the viewer in to look at the internal part of the figure. This promotes the notion of truly looking into a person's soul instead of just their exterior self. The open gash was constructed to show the ways in which women are both emotionally and physically hurt. However, inside, instead of blood, there are crystals: bold, complex, and intriguing. This reflects the vigor women have to stand back up again when they are torn down. The use of the color purple draws on the historical role it has played as a symbol of feminism; women in the suffrage movement in Britain wore purple in solidarity with their fellow suffragettes, and today we wear purple to promote gender equality. As a whole, this piece attempts to celebrate the strength and beauty within women, in spite of the struggles we endure.
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