islands
"Islands represents my reaction to the oversexualized images of men and women in media and art. Despite efforts to free institutions from irrelevant gender markers, the body has become a quasi-religious icon of narcissism, a sacred object that is worshipped through the obsession on physical health, exercise, and bodily manipulation. I create images of the human figure that are sexually neutral, that aim transcend the mere physical understanding of the body and the ways in which we tie identity to the body, in particular gender or sexuality. I create images that aim to undermine the hyperexualized images that are prevalent in the media by removing the body from cultural contexts, allowing the figure to almost fill the visual frame and positioning it with sky or water, layering together two separate images to construct one that represents a new reality. The sky represents the spiritual and reminds us of the vastness beyond the known. The water connects the figure with the simplicity of nature, and encircles the body with reflections or doubles, which undercut belief in absolute truths. I distance my images from commercial ones by removing color, which removes most cultural connotations and increases abstraction. I am working towards a disruptive but ultimately serene understanding of the body."
Copyright © 2017 by Samantha Purcell-Blyth (Sam Kawehionalani). All Rights Reserved.