Feminine Rhyme

• Main Author: Mantecon, Laurie
• Format: Others
• Published: PDXScholar 1996
• Subjects: Laurie Mantecon; Feminism in art; Grids (Cartography) in art; Fine Arts
• Online Access: https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/open_access_etds/5220; https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=6292&context=open_access_etds

'Feminine Rhyme' is a sequence of objects and paintings that resonate with women's experience in contemporary culture. The components I have used are: the structure of the grid, aggressive surface handling, and language derived from text. I have reconfigured these elements to direct the viewer in exploring layers of information that can be viewed in fragments as well as understood within the containment of a sound whole. I have explored the relationship of gender identity in our culture, and the role women play in association to masculine power. Through repetitive use of the grid, combined with isolated words and images, I have created paintings that can be read either in a formal manner through the use of structure and materials that are visually pleasing, or in context to a visual dialogue of contemporary gender myths. By fragmenting text in the form of torn book pages, I have altered and personalized the order, lending weight to chaos. Words become a form of mark making, a lyrical device to be read at random. I have obscured the imagery by hiding the text, leaving only scattered bits of information. These bits are derived from a 'therapeutic model' found in self help books, diet books and romance novels which exploit "feminism" as a commodity, serve as cultural documents, and influence women as to how they should perceive their bodies, their minds, their freedom. The end result is a visual interplay of form and color within the context of personal testimony and societal conditioning of the female experience in contemporary culture.