As women, we know what it’s like to perform. A dab of lipstick here, a pair of high-heels there, a lit cigarette and boom! Your story ends and another begins. So goes the transformation for artist Andrea Mary Marshall, whose work explores femininity through an evolving language of archetype and exaggeration. Andrea uses tried and true feminist fodder to her advantage. Blood? Check. Sex? Check. Religion? Check. Fashion? Check.

However, unlike some other artists that utilize the same basic ingredients, Andrea manages to evoke powerful reactions with her work, without that overly judgmental feeling that seems to accompany  similar artistic projects. Instead, she takes a different approach to handling these elements. 

To illustrate my point, I’d like to share a small anecdote. A friend of mine who is now currently a holistic teacher developed what she called “a nice little coke habit” while she was working at a high-powered corporate job. After a while she realized she needed to stop, but instead of quitting cold turkey, she let herself totally loose. She said ” I let myself do it as much as I wanted all the time, everyday. I never denied myself. And then finally one day, I had no desire to do it at all.” She quit coke and corporate America all at once and now leads a quiet, happy life in a suburban town. 

Clearly this is not a strategy that I would recommend to most people, but it did get me thinking about things in a different way. Now, I tell you this story because I feel like Andrea’s work operates on the same logic as my friend’s. Her work indulges the viewer in the most extreme representations of women. It’s loud, fashionable, sexy, dark and appealing. It’s unapologetic. She’s unapologetic.

Which is something that is so great about this work. She is actually allowing herself to go to these extremes in her performance work, and it looks like she’s enjoying it. And this is something that most feminists will not admit, or do not allow themselves to show in their artwork. The truth is, being a woman is complicated and it always will be. And most women, as much as we knock the fashion industry for its impossible standards, or chafe under the weight of madonna/whore archetypes, sometimes we actually seek them out. These standards are a “bad” habit that delight and demolish us, depending on the day. However, as with most negative experiences, there’s always the opportunity to learn. Andrea is the martyr willing to follow our cultural habits into the deepest of rabbit holes in the hope of actually learning the true middle ground, or neutral point; the space where real women exist, both within and outside of our gender stereotypes and expectations. 

Each project in her “Toxic Women” exhibition reveals a slightly different face of hers. Her cover illustrations showcase a bad-ass and clever attitude, while her other drawings of fashionable archetypes are moodier. Thankfully, they all work together as a in order to serve her ultimate desire to”connect, rather than isolate the female experience and contribute to evolving, yet eternal female imagery.”

Amen sister sinner, I say Amen. 

(Source: andreamarymarshall.com)