CINDY CRAIG
Artist’s Statement
I've always been interested in what goes on inside the home behind closed doors. As a child, I watched as my Mom's cheerful public persona quickly dissolved into depression and rage. Shaped by societal pressures and expectations of the 1950's, my Mom was seduced into the "American Dream" only to discover that it wasn't for her. The fantasy of domestic bliss came to a crashing end when my parents divorced and I was signed up to clean houses at age eleven. My relationship to domesticity has been very complex and it is the main focus of my current body of work.
My most recent series, "Woman as Home Decor", depicts female figures as home decorations, The lampshades on their heads hide their identity signifying their value as objects rather than human beings. The series “Fantasy Wives/Reality Lives,” explores my parents' divorce from both the male and female perspectives. Cliched images of women as sex objects are juxtaposed with overwhelmed housewives confined within decorative prisons of silent desperation and domestic chores. My most personal work, the “Invisible Wallpaper” series, expresses my own feelings as a child growing up in a home where I felt invisible.
These series of works have given me the opportunity to examine my family history, question what it means to be a woman and most importantly, to heal.