ELLIE MAWBY

An exhibition curated by Flo Yapp, raising the question 'What Makes A Women?' - I came across a statement from the Unborn Child Pain Awareness Act, who took the term ‘woman’ to mean ‘a female human being who is capable of becoming pregnant, whether or not she has reached the age of maturity.’ My work reflects the Act’s definition for ‘woman’ and how it seems females are almost onlookers on their own lives, as they take in society’s expectations and opinions on their lifestyle and have someone else define them as either a woman or an ‘unwoman’ (reference to Margaret Atwood’s A Handmaid’s Tale, wherein infertile women were considered unwomen). The Act’s statement is not something I believe to be accurate and through my illustrations I wanted to depict an almost caricature of how obscene it is to continuously associate woman with being purely about fertility and being a mother when women are proving themselves to be independent, free-thinking people and to assume that a female who is infertile is ‘unwoman’ is unpalatable.

 

I use collaged imagery of celebrity culture — female celebrities who do or have had difficulty conceiving — among faces of anonymous models (regardless of their state of fertility). Within celebrity culture, society constantly scrutinise these women with their every daily act, and millions of onlookers feel the need to comment on their lifestyle choices. I aim to bring to light, through my work, the social stigma that is attached to women and their ability or inability to reproduce.