THE ESSENTIAL FEMALE
This photo series focused on stripping and reconstructing
the aesthetic of femininity to rediscover what beats at the core of the
feminine consciousness. The female is organic creator by nature; healer,
nurturer, earth mother, earth’s daughter. A reconsideration of activism is
beginning to occur- the recognition of the harmony between nature and the
female, and the interdependence of feminist and environmental activism.
This interrelationship is fact – the capitalist mechanics of
industry simultaneously abuse the rights of the natural world and of women
across the globe. This is crystallised in the ‘ecofeminist’ philosophy that
describes the domination over oppressed groups mirroring the injustice
performed on the environment. The patriarchal narrative that insists that
nature is eternally fertile with a cornucopia of endless resources that serve
for our consumption is the same narrative that considers women as solely useful
for what can be exploited of them.
The green and feminist movements are inextricable: Ecofeminism
recognises the ways in which industry in the developed world directly
contributes to the pollution of the earth’s air, desecration of her forests,
and soiling of her seas. An industry that we can directly disrupt is the unethical
mass production of cheap clothes, which is why all of the outfits worn by
Nicola in the photo series are second hand – there is so much clothing in circulation already, it would be wise to make
use of what would otherwise be wasted. 85-90% of the workers in sweat shops are
women that are denied basic workers rights: enduring gruelling hours in dangerous
and inhuman conditions. It is easy to forget, in our first-world society, that
this movement is still very relevant and very necessary. We have the agency to
be the mouthpiece of the silenced and voiceless, inspired by nature’s great omniscience
and our vision of equality.
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