Helen Gorrill

Statement

  "The drawings for her degree show, which reverse the female submissiveness advocated by a religious pamphlet posted through her door, put women in a dominant position while the men are bent and bound in sexual submission.  The male figures have been censored, but to protect whom?  The spam I receive contains more indecency than Ms Gorrill's work, and it is much less interesting because she makes a valid point." The Observer on Sunday/The Guardian in 'Britain is not radical enough'

With the rediscovery of collage and research into early feminist artists such as Hannah Hoch, my work has taken a new turn: How can we celebrate the female form without objectifying it? How much has really changed since Hoch's work of the 1920s?  Not dissimilar to Hoch's inspiration, the reality for many women in recessional 2013 includes entrapment in low-paying jobs and subjection to male-dominated hierarchies.  Whilst the poses of my females are taken directly from art history and set up as though for the male gaze, a closer look at my 2013 collages raises a question-mark over the issue of equality, revealing the posed women as fractured and torn, reconstructed from the broken imagery of the dream of the perfect housewife in 1950s magazines, juxtaposed with the objectified content of contemporary 'lads mags'.  Drawn with reference to Degas figure poses and Matisse's simplicity of form, these collages were based on an international residency, and since returning I have carefully sourced antique and vintage wallpapers for the work, along with researching colour and historical paint palattes.

 Much of my previous work questionned the submissiveness of women advocated by monotheistic religion, particularly in my investigation of Christianity and the representation of the Virgin. People are often afraid to discuss religion, and it remains one of our last taboos, a subject we are afraid to discuss for fear of causing offence. With even Western restrictions on the media's criticism of any religious practice, male-controlled religion will continue to dominate and underpin our society. My feminist subject matter is deeply disturbing, and to me vital in speaking the unspeakable.