Sleeping On Pearls, 2024
Mixed Media light - sculpture
22 x 14 CM / E27
In the late 1630’s Legends about pig-headed women appeared around the same time in the Netherlands, England and France. these stories were about wealthy women with human bodies and the head of a pig. In the earliest versions of these stories, their pig-likeappearance was attributed to witchcraft. After the wedding day, the husband of the pig-headed woman had to choose for her :
should his wife appear beautifully human only to him and pig-headed to the eyes of everyone else, or the other way around ? Only if her husband decided to leave the choice to her, the spell would break and her pig-like appearance would fall away.
How much autonomy to her own appearance and body has a woman today close to 400 years later?
questioning
society + gender norms / power / hierarchies / judgement / evaluation of female purpose & bodily autonomy / superficiality / boundaries / Oppression