“Let the woman learn in silence, with all subjection. But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to use authority over the man: but to be in silence. For Adam was first formed; then Eve”.
Evie McGrath’s practice explores both the ways in which women’s voices have been silenced in history and how power has been gendered male. We live in a culture that is constantly confronted by imagery with our perceptions often dictated by the patriarchal hierarchies in society. ‘Disrupting’ the normative is something that is constantly in magazine and contemporary online culture.
The objectification and silencing of women is an attribute that can be directly linked to the bizarre reality in the current film industry. In the wake of the Harvey Weinstein affair, the status of women is in focus. The whirlwind of scandals that have emerged from Hollywood and the film industry has given rise to the newly developed “Weinstein Culture”. This disruptive nature of this ‘culture’ challenges the status of women in the 21st century. Silence was once the condition of being a woman. However, the women now speaking out about these accusations have been coined ‘The Silence Breakers’.
The artist creates large scale paintings incorporating wallpaper to establish a context of aesthetics such as class, gender, design culture and the film industry. Her work gives the illusion of collage by blending figurative elements, cartoon and expressive gestures.