Personal work commissioned by the Centre Pompidou’s Studio 13/16, the “first and only space in a French cultural institution with a programme of events designed exclusively for young people”. The Centre Pompidou is a major cultural institution in Paris, seeing over 180 million visitors since its opening in 1977..
This piece is called “Sword Thrower”. A woman appears visibly bored, surrounded by circus-style swords embedded in the wall. The swords, traditionally associated with masculine strength and aggression, symbolize the societal constraints placed upon the woman. Her disinterest marks those expectations as mundane and stifling. The female sword thrower in the corner prompts us to consider the power dynamic between them- is she reinforcing a heteronormative gaze that views women as passive objects, or are they dually resisting and queering gender norms together?