Gwendolyn Anne Davies
Copyright © Gwendolyn Anne. All rights reserved.
Claiming Space is a set of glossy, full-color 24” by 36” posters, with creases and folds, pinned to the gallery wall. The images are presented to reference and confront the ideas of beauty, desire, and representation. Through the poster prints, I am challenging ideas of femininity, beauty, desire, and representation and how they are disseminated in contemporary culture. The posters are created through a third-party, small run printer. The color is not refined like a fine art print, hinting to the mass production of posters. I use the poster as the mode of representation to address the way images are often disseminated to communicate what the ideal woman looks like. The title, Claiming Space, addresses the underrepresentation and misrepresentation of women, especially plus-sized women in media, claiming the right to be represented and the visual space to be seen. It is my intention to present a woman who is not different because of her size but a woman who owns her size by showcasing power, strength, vulnerability, and sexuality. I am claiming the power to use that language to challenge ideas of femininity, beauty, desire, and representation – presenting a new standard.