Research Project Summaries
Researching myths of gender especially in respect of the inter-relational nature of its expression within parenting – PhD research via digital, photographic art.
1. A FATHER OF ABSENCE: A set of images depicting my own experience of parental loss and all the moments I have missed with my girls – the first time riding bikes without stabilisers, the first milk tooth falling out, the first aeroplane flight and foreign holiday, numerous Birthday’s and Christmases, school performances and social events.
I would reveal the loss by recreating these scenes but without the girls present, for example an image of myself walking proudly behind two children’s bikes ridden along by my absent girls. In addition to my own experience, I might draw upon other archives such stock-image libraries, social media and search-engine image-search results for reference.
2. THE FETISHISATION OF MATERNITY: A set of images depicting the moment’s that Nicky will never experience not being able to have children – the first sign of life in an ultrasound scan, the bizarre ritual of a “gender reveal party”, walking proudly along with a baby in a push-chair, coffee with other mothers.
Again, the scenes would be those that we might normally imagine for a mother, but the infant would be missing. Eventually this set of images would create a story that could merge with the former about my paternal loss. In addition to Nicky’s lived experience, I might draw upon archives such stock-image libraries, social media and search-engine image-search results for reference.
3. CULTURAL MYTHS OF GENDER: A set of images referencing either well-known paintings or well-known figures in paintings but where gender roles are reversed – Florence Nightingale, Jesus on the cross with Mary,
Painterly in their aesthetic but contemporary and domestic, my hope would be to highlight the insidious effect of a cultural narrative that still maintains gender stereotypes in day-to-day life.
4. EXTINCT NOTIONS OF GENDER (ESP. MASC.): Apparently taxidermic dioramas of outdated notions of gender expression such as the various incarnations of Testosterone Rex and hyperbolic femininities.
City boys, muscle men, soldiers, Instagram influencers etc. Perhaps displayed, or photographed as displayed, in glass cabinets like museum exhibits rather than works of art.
5. PHOTO STORY/PHOTO-GRAPHIC NOVEL: A story for adults told predominately in photographs. It details a family breakdown and separation of a father and daughter, then eventually the beginning of their reunification.
As time passes without contact with her father, the picture she secretly keeps of him under her pillow begins to change. First she notices his image fade then notices that half of her own image is disappearing too, only returning when she starts to re-connect with her separated father.
