CAMOUFLAGED

Camouflaged is a body of work that explores the effects of war and separation on women and children. The separated self that splits us in two, creating the chaos of being in one place, torn that we are not in that other place too. The constant struggle to be present. Body is a representation of humanity but specifically the female. This is a self portrait of the military wife and mother. The ongoing search for words that define self separated from “other”.

The body narrates this story. She has informed this practice when the mind could not process and for the journey she is wounded but strong. The journey includes identity as self, to wife, to mother. As self to body in relationship, to body that cares for another. Each of these figures represent women in our culture, how we view the spousal role, the mother and the female self. More specifically these figures represent the woman in war, literally and figuratively and the role PTSD plays in relationship to the mind and body.

The work asks the viewer to “dance” alongside in relationship, feeling spaces within the work’s body as well as within themselves. Feeling the pull from one part of oneself to the other while being invited to center in the now. Two sides, one angled and sharp, the other organic and round. There is beauty in chaos, an organized jungle of eye candy.

Does human life have a price tag? Can it be laid out in a spreadsheet? Does one life have more monetary value over another based on its actions or service? As a military spouse and mother, I am looking at the cost of service, how we become a commodity in one of the largest businesses in the economy. I’m looking at my role in retirement as the possibility that as a spouse, I too was a government employee. One without a contract, without benefits in my name and without agreement that I would work without compensation and without say in what and how my “employer” functioned. We live in a neoliberalist society. A society run by corporations that exist within a free marketplace. This free marketplace places price tags on all its property, including living things. Everything costs or is at a cost. The end goal for business…profit.

Each part of these installations will be marked with a price tag that will include a price and description. If a piece sells it will need to be reconstructed using a different object, producing an ever-changing installation and performance space. There is a sense that life is disposable to build for the greater good, production. In that same way, being the support system for those serving, my life often felt disposable, that the work I did to raise our family and figure out my personal contributions to the world were well outweighed by my responsibility to be faithful to military and its much larger vision for change and longevity.

As a consumer, viewers of the installations will be invited to consume at their leisure. The other component will be to subtly ask viewers to become a participant in marketing the art as product. In this way the consumer also holds power in the company and dictates its longevity success and production levels. In contrast to traditional capitalistic views that business will consume and often times misplace the consumer. The choice to move into the consumers space and include the consumer will hopefully speak to the desire to collaborate with the consumer.

PRICE OF SERVICE

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