“Colony” is an installation of laser cut, hand-printed bugs, which I created by digitally manipulating imagery from vintage valentines. In re-contextualizing the kitschy imagery from these valentines, I attempt to transform a simplistic and saccharine image of idealized femininity into something more complex. The girls in these valentines are liberated to join each other on the walls of the Loudon house's back staircase; while one small bug may represent an interruption in the viewer’s visual field, as a group their playfulness and multiplicity becomes a menacing force with the power to occupy a space. At the same time, “colony” nods to the role that such imagery has in the internal colonization of non-normative feminine subjects.
Colony
Vintage valentines, silkscreen on cardstock, spray paint
Size variable
2022