-
- Paulina Vaitkeviciute
Paulina
Vaitkeviciute
The Breath
A girl does not become a woman without bloodshed, horror, and pain. Contradicting expectations pushed upon young girls, and the people who view them as objects of desire, to be owned, to be claimed, all stain the innocence of girlhood. Eventually, we breathe through the pain, we mourn our childhood, and if we are lucky, we transform it into power. This experimental film captures the internal stages of transition from girlhood into womanhood.
The Idolised
This sculptural piece is a critique of the commodification of the female form in modern society. The choice of cardboard as the medium is deliberate; its fragile nature speaks to the disposability of women in society, and the structural choices depict the hollowness with which sex is often viewed, a stark contrast to the reverence a bust typically symbolizes.
Throughout the creation of this artwork, I reflected on the paradox of elevating women as icons of desire whilst simultaneously reducing them to objects of fleeting significance. The cardboard, with its textured layers and susceptibility to wear, mirrors the layered but ultimately fragile constructs of modern ideals surrounding femininity and sexuality. I hope that this sculpture provokes a conversation about the ways in which society shapes, consumes, and discards the identities of women.