Artist’s Statement

I have always been drawn to working with people’s everyday routines and the general mundanity of life that strangely warp into obsessions, and neuroses in our contemporary, highly materialistic, media driven society and the often idiosyncratic mechanisms we develop in order to cope. My multi-media works explore these issues in ways that are often humorously dark and cryptic and reflect an ambiguity of excess and loss, a dislocation between appearance and truth.

My practice has more recently become focused on female identity and the anxieties that manifest and are cultivated from the bombardment of the media as well as societal expectations and pressures (both self-imposed and external).   Desire and morality are underlying themes and talk to the push-pull of our contemporary society. The obsession with appearance, surface and notions of success and beauty push women to compromising extremes where their choices are informed by the male gaze the media and a desperation to be desired and remain young and beautiful.

I work across a number of mediums to illustrate this point – from photography to found objects, to sound sculptures and collaborative, inclusive discussions with women.  The beautiful, seductive surfaces and grand spectacles conceal and reveal a dark, problematic undertone, they are intended to be metaphoric for our contemporary, developed, first world culture.

Artist’s Links

artist website:  www.francesgoodman.com    

gallery links: