Aimee Pullon

Artist Catalogue

Virtual Exhibition

Gender inequality is the oldest form of socially accepted discrimination. Even after the many iterations of feminism, basic human rights are still denied to women across the globe for tenuous reasons. The patriarchy however, is ultimately a system that fails us all. The work was partly inspired by a famous quotation in Virginia Woolf’s 1928 book A Room of One’s Own, in which she states, ‘throughout most of history, Anonymous was a woman.’ In this phrase, Woolf questions the ways in which women’s authorship has been judged as inferior to that of men - and because of this, has systematically - for centuries - been made invisible. By considering this phrase, I was able to I meditate upon the immeasurable contributions that women have made to culture and society, and the losses sustained by the erasure or even complete exclusion of many of these gifts from our collective history. The works I have made this year attempt to grapple with this matter. Alongside it however, looms large my own complicated ideologies and experiences around being female, and the immensely difficult relationship I had with my mother whilst growing up.

Gender based violence is undoubtedly understood as men toward women, however women are not entirely exempt from being the violent ones - towards their children, partners and even themselves. This comes as no surprise though, when one considers the overwhelming level of violence acted upon them and the entrenched expectation to be submissive - to just put up with it. Violence inevitably begets violence. Weaving through all of this is the underlying concept of the abject - that which is considered repulsive enough by an individual or a group, that it is deemed entirely ‘other’ and discarded. I chose to work with this as a metaphor for both the unresolved and traumatic memories of my childhood, as well as the persistent expectation thrust upon women to appear and act a specific way in order to be considered feminine, nice, accepted, attractive. By doing so, I am able to create a holding space for these fragile, and half formed parts of my self - a re-membering of self in order to recover and recreate a more authentic and whole representation of my female self.