‘Defining a Woman by Her (Body) Hair’ 2017

Perspex dry point plates

This piece is called ‘Defining a Woman by Her (Body) Hair’. My project was based on social expectations and gender inequality. I refined it to focus on the theme of female body hair. The project was heavily research based and I was really invested in the whole process. I designed a survey to hear people’s opinions on body hair and I recorded numerous informal conversations . The responses were really interesting. I felt it was important to investigate this specific topic because of the emotional effects that prejudices surrounding female body hair have on women and especially young girls who are essentially taught to hate their natural bodies and that they must remove all body hair in order to be valued in our society.

I considered painting or drawing the body hair on a canvas for my final piece. Then I came across an etching by Kathe Kollowitz. In the image ‘Mother with Her Dead Child’ 1903, the shading created by the fine lines of the etching had this strange ambiguity between hair and shadow which I really wanted to try to harness. I experimented with dry point and found it a very effective way of depicting hair. I continued to work with dry point and decided to use it for my final piece. Due to technical issues when printing I decided to hang the inked up Perspex plates instead of printing onto paper. Overall I am really happy with the outcome and have had lots of positive feedback about my art work. Women have told me that my artwork has given them the confidence to accept their natural bodies, which I think is great.