Uncontainable
This is what it looks like when we stop swallowing it. Uncontainable is every statistic that should have changed something and didn't. Every word a woman was told to keep down. It pours out of the mouth in neon and it does not fit back in. It never will. The frame is antique gilt. It used to hold a print of a passive, decorative woman reading quietly by candlelight. Contained. Ornamental. It doesn't hold her anymore. It holds this. Underneath, the silver background is built up with a palette knife and the everyday objects of a woman's life pressed straight into the paint. The streams carry real, verified feminist statistics and quotes, cut by hand and sealed into the surface. A hidden message is worked into the original, invisible until UV light hits it. Then it speaks. It started as a biro sketch at 11pm. It became something that will not be quiet. Below is the whole process, from the first marks to the finished piece. Giclée fine art prints available in the shop.
Uncontainable. The finished piece, in its antique gilt frame.
Where it started. A biro sketch at 11pm. Everything you see in the finished piece came from this.
Before. An After Fragonard print of a woman reading quietly by candlelight. Decorative. Passive. Contained. This is the frame that started everything.
The original canvas out of its frame, gesso already started. Something being covered so something else could exist.
The foundation. Palette knife silver built up across the whole canvas. The white space reserved for the mouth and streams. The texture already doing its work.
The mouth is in. The streams are still waiting. Something about to happen.
The first colour. Two streams, still finding their way. The neon arriving for the first time.
All four streams. Pink, orange, green, yellow. The composition locked in. Everything that follows rides on these.
The words going in. Verified statistics and quotes cut from vellum and placed onto the streams. La honte doit changer de camp. Our collective voice is powerful. The rage finding its language.
The process. Every piece of text cut individually, placed by hand, tested before committing. Dozens of decisions. This is what it looks like in the middle of making something that matters.
Nearly there. All the text placed. Background mostly done.
Uncontainable. The finished piece.
The finishing touch, a hidden message applied with UV ink, only visible under a blacklight
Uncontainable. The finished piece, before being framed.
Uncontainable. The finished piece, in its antique gilt frame.