Love-Affair with Art, Flirtation with Femininity

While this type of “feminine experience” is not one we tend to experience within the context of modern life, it spoke to a human heritage and time when people embraced a connection with the land as a necessity of life. The inclusion of this composition held an undercurrent of bravery, since it spoke to the more subdued, a-woman’s-place-is-in-the-home past that we tend to, in accordance with modern views of feminine equality, shy away from mentioning. But this heritage is undeniably real, and thus the presence of such an illusion was both an intriguing surprise and a refreshing exploration of an aspect of femininity largely obscured by modernity.

Poised in the corner beside the doors was a more visually subdued display, featuring a mannequin adorned with the fabric of a baroque dress and pearls. She stood in front of a wall of mirrors and empty picture frames, surrounded by ornate masks as if she was preparing to go to a masquerade. The task that faced her, it seemed, was to decide which mask to wear, or rather which iteration of herself to fill the mirrors and the empty picture frames with. Or perhaps she had just returned from the masquerade, and, removing her outfit, realized that the masks are what fill the mirrors and frames, not the lady behind them. She seemed to ask, simultaneously, “Who am I?” and “Who shall I be?”

College sophomore Julie Spinner / Charity Gates, Staff

picture: http://www.queenieaustralia.com/one-shoulder-formal-dresses

Moving forward through the gallery, the next scene comprised of a mannequin dressed as a bride in overflowing layers of white muslin and a similarly clothed actress, College sophomore Kaeleigh de Silva, who floated around the mannequin, fanning her with circular leaflets of lace. A layer of muslin covered their heads, concealing both of their faces as the performer moved about. From above, a projector cast flowers, water and greenery onto the two, bathing their white figures in images and color. Periodically, the...