Evangeline Baldwin
I anthropomorphise construction objects to explore labour divisions within class and gender. I create construction works with materials symbolic to traditional views of womanhood, and place these indications of construction objects in the setting of a white walled gallery space. The latter fetishises working class labour, by contrasting what is usually a working class job in the context of a middle/upper class work setting, without any working class involvement in this process. Good construction goes unnoticed, you only start to notice the pipes once one starts to leak. This parallels with the often unappreciated, unpaid domestic work. In my work I merge these two unappreciated, gendered, private and public roles/jobs together, ie, bricklaying with lard and cement. Furthermore, I make my construction objects dysfunctional through the feminised materials used; soft and submissive materials to indicate hard, tough construction objects. Doing this makes my objects dysfunctional, and therefore heard. In their dysfunctionality, a greater value is placed on its aesthetic- much like notions of female objectivity within broader society and popular culture.
Work 4
2018
Oil, acrylic and graphite on canvas
56 x 112 cm