Jodie Harper

This body of work is inspired by misogyny and the male gaze. My starting reference is the Baroque artist Artemisia Gentileschi. Through her well-documented experiences of (double) violence– first as a victim of rape, and then a victim of torture metered out by male justice, the hand became the central visual motif in my work: hands used in defence, hands tortured, hands of an empowered defiant artist.

I aim to highlight the continued prevalence of these issues of contemporary misogyny and abuse against women. This work challenges notions of what is ‘desirable' or 'attractive’, contrasting them with a morbid fascination of torture, power and control- forces that continue to deform the individual physically as well as mentally.

The work also references the disturbing reality that approximately 65%, around 6 in 10, women in Ireland experience some form of sexual abuse, assault, or harassment. This increased during the COVID-19 pandemic, as reflected through the medical gloves used. Jodie Harper is an art educator and artist specialising in textiles.