Untitled by Sarah Murdoch

Statement: Objectification can be defined as seeing and/or treating a person, usually a woman, as an object. Exploration of the female form was the starting point of this research, studying the evolution of beauty standards throughout the ages. Initially, the life drawing tradition marked the beginning of this investigation, that allowed for an exploration of the shapes and movement of the body; extracting form, colour, and pattern directly from drawings and incorporating them into these designs. Each pose has its own fleeting image that has to be captured there and then, and can be interpreted in different ways by the viewer. The collection presented here, focuses on Western ideals of beauty and the extremity of the objectification of women in our culture. In today’s society women are under constant pressure to ‘correct’ their bodies to an ideal image, to the detriment of their mental health. Therefore these pieces form a collection of vessels focussing on the mental health crises in young women reflected in the myriad pressures society places upon them. This collection of smooth, organically-shaped and brightly patterned objects are representative of the character and collective nature of specific relationships.