Portfolio > Little Women

2010-2017

In the photographic series Little Women I stage scenes populated by tiny female figurines. These figures loiter, labor, journey, and explore their surroundings. Architects and city planners use figurines like these when envisioning new idealized spaces. My arrangements are designed to provoke a different and less utopian range of associations.

When a child plays, she projects herself into different roles and uses imagination to instill life in her toys. These photographs are an echo of that dramatic play, and a reflection on learned gender roles. This work has a personal dimension too. I decided not to use any male figurines, and to use my own household as the stage for this mysterious world. (Meanwhile the housework is left undone.)

The women in these photographs are surrounded by the domestic trappings of femininity. Sponges and laundry piles loom like buildings, and a muffin tin becomes a sticky trap. Instead of actually doing housework, or applying make-up, the women encounter these objects as the basis of the very world they explore. Sometimes the spaces are psychologically overwhelming, at other times they are magically fantastic.

There is humor in the Little Women series as well. The sight of these tiny women trying to cope in such an absurd, out-of-proportion world is uncanny, even ridiculous. The scenes in Little Women draw the viewer into this imaginary world, and also provoke questions about “women’s work”. While surrounded by the literal paraphernalia of womanhood, these figures actually inhabit a vast, complex world that extends well beyond the edge of the picture frame.

Beholder
Digital Photograph
2016
Secure
photograph on metal
30" x 40"
2015
Adorn
photograph on metal
30" x 40"
2015
Recreation
photograph on metal
30" x 40"
2015
Uncharted
photograph on metal
30" x 40"
2015
Survey
photograph on metal
30" x 40"
2015
Salvage
photograph on metal
30" x 40"
2015
Drained
photograph on metal
30" x 40"
2014
Adrift
photograph on metal
40" x 30"
2014
Sunrise
photograph on metal
30" x 40"
2014
Office
photograph on metal
30" x 40"
2014
Search
type C photograph
16" x 24"
2013
Arrival
type C photograph
16" x 24"
2013
Departure
Type C photograph
16" x 24"
2013
Informed
Type C photograph
16" x 24"
2013
Labor
Type C photograph
16 1/2" x 11"
2012
Lost
Type C photograph
16 1/2" x 11"
2012
Thread
Type C photograph
2012
Journey
Type C photograph
11" x 16 1/2"
2012
Dazzled
Type C photograph
11" x 16 1/2"
2012
Climb
Type C photograph
24" x 16"
2010
Sleep
Type C photograph
16" x 24"
2011
Slide
Type C photograph
16" x 24"
2010
Stuck
Type C photograph
24" x 16"
2010
Clean
Type C photograph
16" x 24"
2011
Discovery
Type C photograph
16" x 24"
2010
Tightrope
Type C photograph
24" x 16"
2010
Motherboard
Type C photograph
16" x 24"
2010
Battle
Type C photograph
16" x 24"
2010
Burdened
Type C photograph
24" x 16"
2010
Consumed
Type C photograph
16" x 24"
2010
Passage
Type C photograph
16" x 24"
2011
Entangled
Type C photograph
24" x 16"
2016
Traveler
Type C photograph
24" x 16"
2012
Toyland
Type C photograph
24" x 16"
2011
Pedestal
Type C photograph
16" x 24"
2011
Farewell
Type C photograph
16" x 24"
2011
Night
Type C photograph
24" x 16"
2011
Winter
Type C photograph
24" x 16"
2011
Battle
Type C photograph
24" x 16"
2010