"This project speaks of the potential loss of self in terms of female identity within the domestic space and the demand for recognition. Not only has domestic work been rooted into the daily activities of women, but it has in fact been embedded into women’s natural attributes – their physique, personality, sexuality, intelligence, emotional wellbeing – their purpose of existence. Focusing light on women’s efforts to ignore their domestic labour through their photographic representations demonstrates women’s efforts not to be associated as a housewife, which according to Silvia Federici is the most powerless position in a capitalist society (1975). Through collecting and creating an archive of family album photographs from a vast number of women, patterns and trends begin reveal themselves; the desire for perfection, decoration and the pose and performance for the camera. The interventions through this body of work point to the potential loss of self in terms of female identity within domestic space and the demand for recognition." - Catarina Leone
© Wanderley Massafelli
Catarina Leone creates mixed media artworks, film, performances, analogue-collage and installation. With a conceptual approach, she touches on the relationship that society has with popular culture and mass media, working with repetition, provocation and the investigation of the process of expectations. By taking the performance of daily life as subject matter while commenting on the everyday aesthetic of mainstream values, she finds an inherent awkwardness, that echoes our own vulnerabilities. The artist also considers movement as a metaphor for the ever-adjusting woman who experiences a continuous stride for perfection. The construction of materials through Catarina Leone’s work are metaphorical of the diverse psychological states which, like identities, are never fixed and are constantly in flux.
Catarina Leone currently has work on display at the Gallery of Photography for the Dublin Institute of Technology BA Photography Graduate Exhibition 2017 'Liminal Acts'.
Contact & Follow:
catarina.leone@gmail.com