So this weekend I have had the privilege to exhibit my final university project at the Old Truman Brewery in the heart of London, something I never thought could have happened. It has marked the end of my journey to gain a degree.
My work has always explored identity. With this project the main story was gender, and how we as society portray gender. In particular, with this body of work, I wanted to question and challenge gender roles in classic fable stories and fairy tales, such as the Sleeping Beauty and the Princess and the frog. Traditionally, these stories presented clear gender roles, which were based on binary distinctions between male and female characters, perpetuating a number of stereotypical perceptions and associations.
Classic tales are supposed to communicate the dominant idea of society, but our society has gradually changed its ideas on gender. The sexes have become equal, same-sex marriages are now legal, and this year we celebrated the 100-year anniversary of the women's right to vote. Accordingly, the images in this series present a number of alternatives, not only in terms of the gender of the characters in the story but also the characters attitudes. The intention of this project was to create a set of strong images that would illustrate these changes in societies views, in order to further promote changes in the way we view gender.