Heather D Haigh
DISSOCIATION
IMAGE DESCRIPTION: A pink humanoid figure either sinks into water or floats underwater. The water is done in patches of light blue and yellow with markered blue lines. Another set of blue markered lines shows the water's surface, which is very close to the top of the image. The humanoid figure has distorted or hastily-drawn limbs. The figure is hairless and almost featureless with a mouth and eyes reminiscent of Munch's The Scream. This person may also be skinless since its bright pink color looks more like meat than skin. The hands and feet resemble nerve fibers because of long digits that extend in every direction.
COERCED SURROGATE
IMAGE DESCRIPTION: A pink figure sits or stands against a background of overlapping green and yellow patches. At first glance, the figure may appear confusing or appear to have too many limbs. Viewers will eventually see two figures with the same body. One is a standing femme or woman with an angry face and two upraised arms. The other is a seated figure with one upraised arm, one arm braced against the ground, and one bent leg. This figure's face may be taken as masculine or male because of the large nose and short hair. (This figure's "face" is the standing woman's torso from the other viewpoint, and the large "masculine" features also serve as her breasts.) Both figures are naked, and both present an elongated torso with two curved inner lines (representing a womb) and a developing baby or musical note drawn between them.
Artist statement:
Dissociation: This piece is part of a collection of work interrogating the internal bodily sensations related to PTSD. The style is influenced by abstract impressionism in parallel with the abstract thought processes and sensory perceptions associated with the state of dissociation. Worked in brush pen and wax crayon on multi-media paper, in a very loose freestyle technique to mimic the loss of clarity and mooring that can accompany such moments. A representation of my personal experience to open up potential resonance with fellow sufferers.
Coerced Surrogate: Also in the abstract impressionist style, this piece reflects the fragmentation and distortion of body self-image by female commodification. The focus on the value of women is placed upon the reproductive organs. I wanted to interrogate how this would affect self-image and the image that a woman, particularly one used to birth several children, might have of her babies. I attempt to pose the question: Can she allow herself to see them through the normal lens of motherhood, or must her mind blur and distort their mental images? Worked in acrylic and oil-pastel on canvas to impart a bold contrast of the female body against her surroundings.