Recent Projects
Sculpture Designs
In this project I focused on the overwhelming pressure society puts on women to achieve an impossible standard of beauty in order to hold value in society, and how this mass of conflicting and impossible instructions can have such a negative impact on their mental health. This project was undertaken at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, so the brief was to produce the finalised designs rather than a 3D product.
Society values beauty more than any other trait in women, but the only thing some women value more than their appearance is success. This inspired me to explore how women in positions of power and/or successful within male dominated fields are seen in a negative light. For example, successful women are often deemed as unfeminine, too emotional to lead or an ice-queen if they fail to show emotion and it is these contradicting comments about women that make it impossible for them to be perceived positively by society.
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I wanted to draw attention to this and visualise the overwhelming negativity society throws at women, with the outcome being visually overwhelming and make the viewer feel uncomfortable so that they question both their own values and those of society as a whole.
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I hope that from this project more people will be aware of the impossible standards society projects upon women so that they challenge and question them, as well as questioning how they think and talk about successful women, placing value on their achievements as opposed to judging their appearances and seeing them as neglecting their ‘roles as caregivers’. I aim to encourage people to change their way of thinking and reflect on the misogyny within society. Misogyny as a whole is a vast issue that needs tackling but, in my project, I am purely focussing on the extreme pressure on women to look a certain way.
If you'd like to contact KAS about a commission, please fill out the form below or contact Katie Smith at ktsmith539@gmail.com