Manufacture illustrates the pressure put upon women to adhere to the modern construct of femininity. The female body is shown to be constrained, manipulated and artificial, bound by a false ideal of beauty. The artist uses her own body in her practice to explore this elaborate masquerade. She often models items of clothing designed and made by herself to highlight the strain and discomfort involved in being a woman. For Holmes, to be born a woman is to be born within an allotted and confined space. Taught to continually survey herself and persuaded to loathe what she sees, a woman can have no true freedom with her body.
Giclee print
OBSA0012, OBSA0013, OBSA0014
Holmes, Elizabeth
School of Arts
Year: 2016
© Holmes, Elizabeth Published by Oxford Brookes University