Inspiration for my work comes from questioning misogyny in western philosophical tradition. The collective title of these works ties together the individual pieces, each named after an influential western philosopher and their viewpoint on women.
For this series I use new and traditional mediums in a unique way. Gouache and ink on transparent acetate and Yupo are used which allow for hybrid layers which combine to create the finished work. The base layer on Yupo utilises inks and the process is largely uncontrolled representing the living cells of my subjects evoked in the moment. The animal nature of woman that needed to be contained. Often my work includes a semi controlled layer of flowers printed directly onto the surface their residue a fleeting memory of nature representing women’s discursively constructed ‘lack of reason and moral ability’ and questioning the hierarchal distinction between masculinity and art and femininity and craft. The final figurative layer is a painstaking process working in reverse to create a mirror image of the subject. All works are A3 in size.
Hobbe’s State is Your Protector 
Hume’s Unresisted Desire 
Locke’s Liberty In Private 
Kant’s Nature Subdued 
Aquina’s Misbegotten Male 
Aristotle’s Mutilated Male 
Freud’s Penis Envy 
Hegel Woman as Plant 
Rousseau’s Male Need 
Plato’s Pet 
Descarte’s Reason Untrained 
Augustine’s Helpmate 
Weingar’s Plaything 
Sprenger’s Devil 
Tertullian’s Gateway 
Kramer’s Witch 
Schopenhauer’s Moral Inability
Oswald Spengler 1880-1936 believed man’s history is one of conquest and culture women’s was of home, children and nature.
Thomas Hobbes 1588-1679 believed the state and the family with the father ruling was essential to ensure women didn’t lapse into a state of nature and destruction
David Hume 1711-1776 warned of the power crazed woman. He defined women in terms of their sexuality and thought women were weaker then men as they were unable to resist their desires.
John Locke 1632-1704 believed women’s liberty can be in the private not the political realm as women are to irrational and passionate in nature.
Immanuel Kant 1724-1804 associated women with nature and lacking the ability to be moral and so believed women must be subdued by men.
Thomas Aquinas 1225-1274 thought woman was the misbegotten male who needed to be subjected to the higher powers of man.
Aristotle 384- 322 BCE believed the female was the mutilated male. Woman provided the raw material but male sperm is the source of life and thus the shape life will take. So male must rule female.
Freud 1856-1939 thought women as children recognise the penis as a superior organ. Women’s sexuality hindered her ability to act morally.
According to G.W.F Hegel 1770-1831 the difference between men and women was like the difference between animal and plant.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau 1712-1778 understood women solely in relation to male needs.
Plato 427-347 BCE believed women were closer to animals than to man.
Descartes 1596-1650 believed humans were body and mind. The Self was the mind the Body was inferior, irrational and traditionally female.
Augustine 354-430 BCE believed women must be the helpmate to man as man is wisdom and woman is mind and needs to be subordinate.
Otto Weinger 1880-1903 believed woman was the plaything of men and children. Nothing but sexuality itself finding meaning through the male.
Heinrich Kramer and James Sprenger 1486 wrote the bible on witch hunting in an attempt to preserve womans subservient role.
Tertullian 160-200 CE woman was the gateway to the devil. Woman equalled sexuality and man equalled image of god.
Arthur Schopenhauer 1788-1860 believed women were unable to be moral. He believed they had failed to produce great art or any work of permanent value.