The theme for this piece falls under the category of invent/innovation under the category of politics. I chose innovation of mindset. In particular, of rethinking different particular problems which have affected individuals for a long time. I decided on developing the idea of women, specifically their bodies, and how men have often viewed women as property and have often influenced or made decisions regarding the female body.
A woman's body and how she make decisions over it should, in my opinion, be a human right and a woman should be able to make decisions freely as a man does over his own body. The controversy in the news involving Donald Trump signing the abortion related order to decrease funding to Planned Parenthood and the Brock Turner case represent how even with an evolving society, women’s bodies are still open to debate and controversy. A controversy on what is right/wrong and constantly discussing this issue is difficult because it seems to always come down to “is it the woman’s fault or should they have a choice?” As a woman this makes me wonder if I will be an adult with the legal right to decide what I can do with my body or if I will have a politician or group of people decide for me.
I hope to represent this theme successfully by showing an extreme representation of this controversy over a woman and her body. I was inspired by the photography of Jo Seub in 2008 with his piece called “ Who wants to live forever?”. Seub's violent photograph shows the corruption of Korean society using dark humour. His series “Who Wants To Live Forever”shows material greed and economic conditions as the cause of human rights violations. He blends imagery from the biblical to the modern to communicate his point to the audience. I thought this spoke well to what I wanted to communicate as well. I wanted to blend timeless problems involving women’s bodies that are still going on today and to show how many ways it has been talked about from a large group of men deciding on how a woman deals with pregnancy to men taking advantage of a woman when she is vulnerable. In addition I hope to keep this theme anonymous, representing the countless men involved in this issue and the women globally affected who have stayed silent.
