ARTIST STATEMENT (English / Espanol)

King Me, Dominate Me is a work about the games women play with their bodies, and the way their bodies are "played with" by others. The substitution of sculpture nipples for traditional checker pieces is a statement about the objectification of women, who are seen all too often as sexual things rather than individuals. Advertising, films, and the media project certain ideas of what it means to be a female, yet there exists a yawning gap between this “norm” and reality. In spite of this disparity, we frequently buy into these unrealistic representations, which ultimately contrast with our individual experience. When we adopt the public (male) gaze, our bodies become alien to us; we become veritably disembodied, dominated by external forces. As we begin to “play the game,” our bodies become tools to be scrutinized, styled, and exploited in vicious albeit subtle intra-gender competitions and rivalries.