Courtney Robinson

My art project focuses on socio-political commentary on how women’s bodies can be reclaimed from a feminist lens. To challenge this ideology around negative body image and my experience of Body Dysmorphic Disorder, I explored many mediums such as body painting, embroidery, scrap pieces and mirror manipulation.

My artwork subverts patriarchal text drawn from the social commentaries that I, as a woman, have experienced and suffered from. Through this exploration, I have been drawn to working with embroidery generating fragments and soft edges of a woman’s likeness captured in a punctured threaded process. Identifying the beauty of the female figure with delicate line work in a typically acclaimed ‘woman’s work’ medium brings forth the delicate nature that is sown into women’s worth being linked to that of social convention and pressure.

I aimed to share the experience with an audience, not for sympathetic gains but rather a self-reflective view on the individual role in cementing ‘standards’ upon a woman’s body. The ability to view a pierced fabric with time embedded into every prick helps unpack and confront the construction of the mainstream ideals of body image.

Image gallery