Daisychain

"Curiouser...?" work in progress from Jan Connett

Daisychain

The major thesis of my work is the exploration of woman’s dichotomy in pursuing the Body Beautiful. We all do it, in our different ways, taking pleasure in presenting our ‘best’ face to the world. But at what cost?

We become addicted to diets, exercise regimes, cosmetic surgery.

We dream of machines that will tone our muscles while we sleep, pills that will dissolve our fat even as we stuff ourselves.

We tie ourselves in endless knots, through our internal, castigating dialogues and our metaphorical corsets.

But where do we learn this behaviour? For Curiouser, I want to look at how we pass on our habits and attitudes to our daughters. How we (mothers? society?) subvert our children’s innocent acceptance of their bodies and drive them, so soon, towards see-saw destructive relationships with food and drink, body and self-image.

I’ve started with Alice’s curiosity (she of Wonderland fame). She leaves the innocence of daisychains in a sunny-afternoon-meadow and chases a white rabbit down an enchanted hole. Then encounters a series of nightmares during which she shrinks, grows and changes shape in response to ‘Drink me! Eat me!’ pleas. Just as we do, in response to bombardments of alluring, seductive advertisements….