Paper Ponderings: Fragile Gains

The weekend has seen me finish my final piece for Vessel - the exhibition being held at the Old Ambo Gallery in Nambour in September.

I have absolutely loved the process and the wanderings that have taken place as I thought about these works and have tried to find responses to the theme that were me.

So Fragile Gains II is now packed and ready to be delivered.

Here is a glimpse of the what I hope will be the final presentation.

Fragile Gains II extends earlier work which examined gains made by women which I consider to be fragile: choices, feminism, education, leadership, equality, safety and liberation.

Eggs are vessels emblematic of both vulnerability and protection; their role is to both protect and nurture. Laws, gains and progress also need to be protected and nurtured. We can never become complacent that the work is done. The work needs to keep being done.

The work is shown on a triangular bandage that has been cropped and placed over a perspex plinth. The bandage is gently gathered in places to allow the eggshells to nestle within it. At the front, the title of the work appears in vintage white letraset.

The billowing softness of the fabric echoes nests and their fragility.

From above, and before I scattered some of the broken eggshells.

The focus of the work at the moment is the fragility of choices. The ability for women to choose who they have sex with; how they present themselves; whether or not they choose to use contraception; whether or not they can maintain a pregnancy... so many of these choices are under fire, under question and up for debate it seems.

Any gains we have made seem to need to be fought for all over again.