allicette Femmes Exhibition Grenoble, France 2013

2

Dear friends and collectors,

I recently returned from my first major international exhibition and want to share with you the work shown and my experi-ence abroad.

The group show, Femmes, opened March 7th, 2013 in Grenoble France. It was held at the Ancien Musée de Peinture, Place de Verdun. Curator, Rossella Genovese invited 17 artists French, American and Italian in a cross-section of artistic expressions, to present their vision of the woman as subject. What place is accorded to women in contemporary society? What is her visibility, presence or absence?

The press coverage was presented on national and regional television, radio, print and internet publications. There were thousands in attendance; including the mayor and various po-litical dignitaries. The exhibition is expected to travel to vari-ous cities throughout Europe.

Selections from my two newest series were featured, Law of Three and Liberation Through Oppression. I hope you will peruse the work and my experience of the show.

Warm regards,

Allicette

3

Official Poster

Law of

Three

5

This series is an allego-ry about the perception of three states in the idea of beauty, but not limited to such.

I am visually suggest-ing and wrestling, at the same time, the inter-con-nectedness of objects or thoughts. Their reaction, their causality. The simple premise of, If this, then that.

I am asking, do all of these parts or questions make one whole? And are these fragments truly apart when they are perceived as indi-vidual? Is the unification or the splitting merely a construct or perception?

Another way to look at this is by using the example of water in it’s liquid state, solid and gas. Individu-ally they are independent units yet at the same time they are water.

Does beauty exist beyond the human component of understanding? Are we in a purposeful denial of what beauty might be? Is there a construction of the perceived truth and the understood lie?

We are in a chase of grasp-ing but we never arriving at a truthful conclusion—as with God, on a very ba-sic level, we do not fully understand the “divine.” We attempt to utilize our rational mind to pin an evaporating idea though into a simple category of understanding.

Any one of those charac-ters could be any one of these three ideas of beau-ty. As the viewer, you’re left to decide what is true and what is not true. Be-cause ultimately that is how we are in our own nature.

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

Liber-ation

Through Oppres-

sion

15

The Liberation Through Oppression series explores how the westernized world expects the acculturation of its societal norms by the non-western world. Their methodology is to demonize religious or cultural differ-ences while at the same time making their own morerational and correct. I use the current friction of a Mus-lim woman’s head dress, and its perceived non-con-formity to western ideals, as a metaphor to address this theme.

My photographs mirror the fallacy of western culture’s assertion of supremacy. It is presumed that Muslim women need to be saved from the victimization of their religion and culture. Theoretically they are re-fashioned as new arche-typal version of the “noble savage” in desperate need of proper reeducation in

freedoms only western phi-losophy, culture and religion can provide. However, from these actions a certain type of double oppression oc-curs. Regardless of wom-en’s choices, to assimilate into their adopted culture or not, they will be ostra-cized either by their native religion/culture or by that of their adopted home. Wom-en are given a free choice but are only offered one op-tion. It is the illusion of free-dom.

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

Progress of the installation of my work

Exterior of museum opening night

25

Press day

Exterior of museum opening night

Opening night

26

Opening remarks by the curator Rossella Genovese

Opening remarks by the curator Rossella Genovese

Rossella Genovese speaking about my work

27

Patron observing my work

Patron observing my work

One of the guided tours of the exhibition

Rossella Genovese thank you for your confidence in my work.

Special thanks to my family and friends.

And I will always be indebted to Gianna, Jane C., Melanie, Erica and Constanza,

the models who grace these two series.