So well-known, so silent
Monday, 03 March 2014 12:21
Written by Verónica Buentello
This series emerged five years ago, when I forced myself to carry out a search, as a challenge to help me to question my position towards artistic expression and take a different path in my artistic career, which had so far focused on illustration.
In “So well-known, so silent” I gathered countless objects related to their meaning that could be connected to social relationships between men and women, without losing Mexicans’ characteristic sarcasm and sense of humor. I therefore chose “ropes”, which tie, attach, unite and hang. Also, “clothes pegs”, which subtly grasp and prevent things from falling. “Hooks” are instruments that keep, hang and imprison objects without harming them. Clothes, organs and color serve to define the gender depicted in the work.
The first piece that I produced as a result of that search was “The woman”. Gradually the ideas flowed, from experiences, friends’ confessions, memories and submission. The ideas crystallized and took shape. At first I only thought about existential events. Wives, mothers, working women, students, pestered women, housewives, and simply women. I wanted to depict in this work that which I was keeping silent: feeling used, constantly questioned about my condition as a student and working woman, marked out by my gender, as though I had no right to personal growth.
I have always heard hurtful words expressing doubt about my condition as mother, wife and housewife, as though those were the only roles that I could play. As the years went by I developed this series comprising several stages, nuances, including changing my life and looking at this multifaceted position from another perspective; being a woman, and a female immigrant.
I confess that striving to succeed in both the professional and personal sphere has been a challenge, though not impossible, and despite being well-known in these fields and others, I sought to combine my love for art and for my family. In this way, I do not have to neglect my personal goals and the desires and dreams that feed my existence, and am therefore a proud WOMAN who is no longer silent.
This series emerged five years ago, when I forced myself to carry out a search, as a challenge to help me to question my position towards artistic expression and take a different path in my artistic career, which had so far focused on illustration.
In “So well-known, so silent” I gathered countless objects related to their meaning that could be connected to social relationships between men and women, without losing Mexicans’ characteristic sarcasm and sense of humor. I therefore chose “ropes”, which tie, attach, unite and hang. Also, “clothes pegs”, which subtly grasp and prevent things from falling. “Hooks” are instruments that keep, hang and imprison objects without harming them. Clothes, organs and color serve to define the gender depicted in the work.
The first piece that I produced as a result of that search was “The woman”. Gradually the ideas flowed, from experiences, friends’ confessions, memories and submission. The ideas crystallized and took shape. At first I only thought about existential events. Wives, mothers, working women, students, pestered women, housewives, and simply women. I wanted to depict in this work that which I was keeping silent: feeling used, constantly questioned about my condition as a student and working woman, marked out by my gender, as though I had no right to personal growth.
I have always heard hurtful words expressing doubt about my condition as mother, wife and housewife, as though those were the only roles that I could play. As the years went by I developed this series comprising several stages, nuances, including changing my life and looking at this multifaceted position from another perspective; being a woman, and a female immigrant.
I confess that striving to succeed in both the professional and personal sphere has been a challenge, though not impossible, and despite being well-known in these fields and others, I sought to combine my love for art and for my family. In this way, I do not have to neglect my personal goals and the desires and dreams that feed my existence, and am therefore a proud WOMAN who is no longer silent.