Surviving The Quarter Life Crisis: Gallery Views
Through the process of creation and presentation in "Surviving the Quarter Life Crisis", a parody of the ideal woman emerged. The combination of artifacts and photographs in the exhibition allowed the viewers to have a complete encounter with the life and roles of the ideal. Enabling the viewers to enter the world, examine the artifacts, and find the distortions and out of place elements, drew attention to the irrationality of this perfect woman.
Viewers interacted with three separate installations in the gallery. To the right was the piece I enjoy being a girl, a vanity scene, to the left, I now pronounce You… Mommy, a hospital scene, and in the center If I knew you were coming I’d have baked a cake, a dining room. Faux walls in the vanity and dining scene acted as reverse alcoves, broke up the gallery, and defined individual spaces for each piece. Each installation had an appropriate separation, wall, or space element, which sanctioned the space as an individual scene. The separations for I now pronounce you… Mommy, were sheer privacy screens normally found in a hospital. Pink wall paper covered faux walls on the back and sides of I enjoy being a girl and separated the installation into its own room. If I knew you were coming I’d have baked a cake utilized a tile floor and a chandelier give the notion of a separate room. The lighting in the exhibition also separated the scenes and drew attention away from the empty space of the gallery. Focused lights created three separate focal points for the installations leaving the remaining gallery space in darkness, thus lowering its importance. This distinction of space allowed the viewers to see three simultaneous roles of the ideal woman: the beauty, the housewife, and the wife and mother.
