"Barriers" series 2012 (image credits-- Madison Fairburn)
"Barriers" is about the power women give to things outside themselves. It began with my attempts to understand certain women in my (then) suburban community-- women who lived in the matching house, with the white picket fence, the giant SUV, the picture-perfect husband, and the picture-perfect clothes. I suspected they weren't so picture perfect, in reality-- I could relate, because, despite the difference in trappings, my life was also one where power was given over to something outside myself-- to my (then) long-term male partner. By giving over power to these trappings, we leave ourselves vulnerable to isolation, insulation, and detachment from the rest of the world. Each sculpture is large enough to cover or wrap around an adult woman-- to protect her, but also insulate her from the world. Each of these is empty, though, being only trappings, as unnecessary as any other external prop.
© 2016 Megan L. Nolde
