Ana Teresa Fernandez – Ablution

anateresafernandez.com and on Electric Works

“My work consists of paintings, which derive from a postmodern strategy of staged, photo-documented performances. My paintings, depicting women engaged in everyday domestic chores, confront labor and power. Of what use is a woman’s body? As a young girl growing up in Mexico, I learned at an early age about the double standard imposed on women and their sexuality. In this body of work were of women dressed in Tango attire, performing cleaning activities or domestic chores in private and public spaces. As in Tango, the women duel with their partner – the environment. I attempt to use the body as a symbolic and measuring device for exploration that pushes and pulls the space to its limits, activating it until one feels the weight of the space pushing back. This dance references the battle between media and predetermined gender notions and expectations, versus instinctual desires and self-empowerment.”

“(…) they are about how hard we try to sculpt our image, doing or repeating activities everyday, (like cleaning) our bodies also need maintenance to look a certain way, but how quickly that could be skewed or altered in our reflection to the rest of the world if the reflection is barely touched. As you see in the distortion on the water, it’s almost like a deconstruction of ourselves just by a slight touch. So, no, we can’t control how we are reflected unto the rest of the world… no matter how hard we try to create or sculpt our image. (…)”

via pentruochi