Rebecca Moolman

Artist Catalogue

Virtual Exhibition

My practice is concerned with challenging perceived feminine ideals, and what happens when we attempt to disrupt these binaries. I began embroidering portraits of poisonous flowers using old underwear, initially starting with my own but eventually acquiring many more through donations made by women in my life. I intend for my work to speak to notions of resistance being referenced through care. By making use of items of clothing that are associated with privacy and the unmentionable, I intend to communicate the truth of these otherwise attractive flowers as being powerful enactors of consequence.

The materiality of underwear, particularly those no longer being used by their owners, became a rich resource me to as they so privately hold the evidence of the bodies that have used them. Once it is no longer serving its purpose, our underwear is one of the only items of our clothing we are unlikely to want to repurpose such as donating or upcycling them.

I was often surprised as I learnt that many common flowers that I was familiar with were in fact poisonous. I loved this uncovering of information on plants I knew just as being beautiful or sentimental but actually had this hidden power I had never experienced or known of. I became intrigued by the delicacy of the poisons found in flowers and how consuming the smallest piece could have devastating consequences.

I attempt to memorialize the flowers I have chosen to work with as a means of speaking to feminine rebellion. I have chosen to subvert the symbol of the flower which has historically represented feminine mystique and sensuality to one that relishes in the sinister, in the poison that will be inflicted onto anyone that comes too close or takes too much.