In my master's thesis, I examine perspectives on the female body throughout history and its perception in contemporary society. I provide a detailed analysis of beauty ideals of the past and present, as my own professional engagement in the field of fashion frequently confronts me with these questions. I explore the notion of what constitutes the »perfection« of the female body and how representations of the female body may serve to communicate and critically engage with social reality. Furthermore, I adress issues of the acceptance of the female body, and ultimately of women themselves, as well as the position of women–specifically the place of the female body within society. My central interest lies in how women perceive their own spirit and body. For me, these two dimensions are inseperable, as neither can exist independently in experiencing the world, engaging in creative processes, or generating new forms of life.
The practical component of my master's thesis is continuously interwoven with its theoretical foundations. Through the practical work, I seek to interrogate the theme of the female body, the manifold perspectives directed toward it, and above all, the ideals of beauty. My intention has been to capture both the cultural construction of perfection and, simultaneously, the dysfunctionality of pathological dimension of the female body. Conceptually and ideationally, my practice draws upon theoretical discourses in cultural sociology, philosophical aesthetics, and art theory, while also remaining deeply informed by my own experiences and embodied encounters.
My earlie studies in sculpture already oriented my attention toward the body – particularly the female body – thus it was a deliberate decision to pursue this investigation further within the field of printmaking. By employing relief representations of the body, I depart from strictly planar visual strategies and thereby attempt to establish a dialogue between printmaking and sculpture. In order to evoke a sense of softness and lightness within the motifs, I chose to print most of the works without colour. Light itself emerges as a constitutive element of my practice. Just as in sculpture the shaping of incidence of light becomes essential, so is important the incoming angle of light with my graphic prints as it is the very condition for the visibility of the prints.
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