The name of the series, MARY, is deliberately two-sided: it refers to my own name, as I use my body as a performative material in the series and draw on personal reflections, and it refers to the one and only Mary: the religious symbol of eternal purity, innocence, youth, submission and chastity. In other words, a female symbol that encapsulates gender role expectations that still – to this day – restrict women.

By applying transparent plastic to my body, I re-interpret the Madonna frescos of the Renaissance as the use of plastic, simultaneously, gives associations to suffocation. 

The series is thus a critical commentary on women’s expected role and behaviors in (Western) society today with a clearly ingrained historicity: the expectations to the female role continue to be reproduced, if not regressed before our eyes these years. They continue to limit women’s opportunities and agency despite the fact that we are living int he 21st.