LAUREL HOFFER

Using collages I explore female sexuality and psyche through a landscape of feminist grotesque surrealism.  This landscape is a visual interpretation of the space outside of patriarchal boundaries in which women are free to express themselves, the landscape of the “female wild zone” as coined by the feminist literary critic Elaine Showalter.  In this space, I explore Woman as lover, warrior, caregiver, destroyer, source of all life.  These women are goddesses, spirits, primal archetypes; they are nature itself.  

Each collage is composed of images found throughout ubiquitous magazines in American culture.  Each element is hand-cut and pasted to form a new image which aims to dispel the image of the patriarchal construct of the American modern woman.  Using images from pornography, nature, and lifestyle magazines, I repurpose the male gaze to bring woman’s inner landscape to our physical shared world.  It is through this landscape of the feminist grotesque that I aim to assist others in the recognition and cultivation of their own wild zones.