Three Tiered Mirror

“Three Tiered Mirror” is an original artwork where I explored the female nude as it is a common image portrayed to have a conversation about individual power through feminism. This work portrays an image of a female nude that is standing in front of a three paneled mirror like those you can find in dressing rooms in large stores. It displays reflections of the woman  in different perspectives. Words are displayed over each mirror. The one in the middle will be legible as to display what the woman thinks of herself and then the others on the side will have the inverted or flipped letters to display what others think of her. This mirror and inverted words plays with the expectations of the viewer as well and promote the difference of the personal perspective versus society's gaze and the power to choose what to listen to. Words have strong meanings and connotations that go beyond the straightforward. Words in my piece play an interactive role between the subject in the piece, the words, and between the words and the audience. I created a piece that changes the interpretation of the words depending on the situation and read according to perspective, this means that the words play a part of including contextual meaning, but also visual information. My piece makes the writing and drawing marks inseparable from each other. They feed and read into each other to add layers and form a complete conversation. The conversation is feminism in the sense of individual power, the personal gaze versus the societal gaze, and female oppression brought on through society and society created industries. Within this theme I decided to play with positive and negative phrases and words to portray through the image the thoughts of a woman and thoughts of society around her. Some inverted words used to show the thoughts of society about the woman are, ‘Bitch’, ‘Dull,’ and ‘Beautiful,’ and the words that are readable in the center mirror showing her thoughts upon herself include, ‘Elegant,’ ‘Needy,’ and ‘Unlikable.’ This shows that perspective changes, many people will think better of others then they do of themselves, but approval from others doesn’t last. Same goes for negative opinions from society, they do not have to control your self esteem. This theme of women and power of choice, feminist representation of self, and societies’ weighty impact on personal esteem, will not flourish if only outside influences matter on the image of self. The words acted with the composition and as an emotional invoker, beyond and in spite of the denotations and connotations of the words themselves. I hope this work shows my personal fight with outside opinions and that it helps others work out their self worth, because no beauty industry, person, or idea needs to have power over how great you are.