Hollie Pearce

Body Wraps pairs fetishistic material—latex, rope, and leather—with opposing fabrics such as pink yarn, pearl beads, and stained canvas to disrupt the stereotypical passivity and traditionality associated with the domesticated activities of “female” craft and homemaking. Aiming to deconstruct what society has historically deemed a norm for women in the private sphere of the home, the creation of an overtly sensual and bulging sculpture rejects the gratification of the male gaze by deliberately adopting a beautifully grotesque form, shifting from pure aesthetic objectification to evocative, autonomous subjectivity. Body Wraps explores female agency in a way that turns domesticated acts into spaces of reclaimed power by re-contextualising patriarchal confinement and highlighting the provocative reality that femininity entails.

Investigating how different materials from the BDSM community are evocative in the way they sound, to the way they feel, Body Wraps subvert the binary of the quiet, subservient woman and the loud, disruptive woman by using materials that embody both qualities.  The once silent texture creates a loud, tactile sound that disrupts the social narrative of traditional expectations of female docility and compliance. Female sexuality is redefined through characteristics of a dominatrix to challenge perceptions around femininity.