What Position is This?

An unflinching and guttural look at how women's aspirations and artistry become traps under the male gaze. A pair of ballet pointe shoes where the dancer herself is rendered as negative space is caught en pointe in a bear trap. She performs with perfect grace while simultaneously captured, unable to step out, unable to stop. This piece interrogates the brutal reality that anything women pursue exists within patriarchal structures designed to consume us. The promise of elevation whether it is artistic achievement, recognition or success, is the mechanism of entrapment itself. She must continue to dance, continue to perform, maintain perfect form while the trap tears into her. The beauty of ballet becomes inseparable from the violence of its demands, and there is no position she can take that frees her.

One of a kind fine art sculpture, made of plaster, ribbon and steel.

Approximately 13" tall, 14" wide, 14" long and 15 lbs.