The women reading series examines and explores images throughout history of various women in the private act
of reading. At first glance the figures are passive, but, reading is an inherently active pursuit. They may be time
traveling, embodying a different race, gender, economic class, a different species, a different planet. It might be
pleasurable, horrifying, edifying... reading opens up possibility, shows potential, allows for empathy and
compassion and ignites the imagination.
A whole world is happening within them while they are being objectified. That points to the heart of my ongoing
project.... which examines how we understand images, what lens we look through when we encounter images,
and the gulf of space between what we think we know and what we could know. It explores the way we are
forever compressing all the complexities of the human experience and the power dynamics inherent within that
unintentional act.
Women were actively barred for centuries from becoming literate out of fear of what they might learn/ do with
that knowledge. The quakes of that remain today, as Nearly 2/3 of the worlds illiterate adults are women.