Cross tables: 1978-79
In this early series I have developed themes that will be ongoing in my work – the use of a simple welded steel table as both support structure and integral component, and the incorporation of industrial materials. The works address the power of the Catholic church in the service of patriarchy and allude to the Poulenc opera Dialogue of the Carmelites.
Tedious Chores: 1979
Here the welded steel table is covered with a variety of readymade household articles such as rubber gloves, clothespins and dishrags. The repetitive, monotonous nature of domestic ritual is emphasized by the profusion of these items; their disposability reinforces the expendable nature of domestic work.
Confinement II: 1981
A room-sized multi-media installation with a mix of seven soundtracks.
Waiting: 1981
Multi-media installation; overall dimensions: 275 cm x 272 cm x 234 cm
Permanent collection of the Art Gallery of Hamilton
Ismétlés, 1981
Multi-media installation; overall dimensions: 193 cm x 112 cm x 112 cm Permanent collection of Museum London
Self Transfigurations: 1983
A series of invented portraits that examine the various roles or expectations thrust on women within the dominant culture – bride, homemaker, eternally youthful and silent. Each of the nine works is comprised of a multitude of small consumer items attached to a styrofoam wig form.
Double Exposures: 1987
The six steel tables of the Double Exposures Series serve as points of organization for six tableaux addressing patriarchal and gender issues. Each of the tableau is comprised of readymade and other materials that have been selected or fabricated for symbolic content, speaking to the lives of women oppressed through low paying jobs, the demands of child rearing and the myth of the eternal feminine. Thus, Barbie dolls have been juxtaposed with phallic screws, wire veils hung with padlocks, and C-clamps used to demonstrate the confines of the patriarchal system.
Though the titles of each of the individual pieces allude to these issues, they were developed afterwards as a means to contextualize the series as a whole. The individual tableaux were assembled by an intuitive approach to both process and materials. The use of metallic colours and readymade objects may suggest pop imagery, but the focus is a subjective one and the result intimate, almost an evocation of the Stations of the Cross.
Mixed media installation
Overall dimensions: 750 cm x 76 cm x 45 cm
