Photo © Allison Morris
Talent of the Year 2020 - NOMINEE: Allison Morris
What Is Hidden By What We See
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This body of work is titled “What Is Hidden By What We See”. The title is part of a quote from Renee Magritte, who, in reference to his famously mysterious paintings, said “Everything we see hides another thing, we always want to see what is hidden by what we see.”
Historically, we have been eager to categorize women and make assumptions about their abilities, limitations, and overall status, and have not paid sufficient attention to what these persons are beyond their social roles or identities.
The female body is constantly being pressured to be something that it’s not. Boundaries are always being drawn as to what shapes, sizes, and categories we should squeeze our bodies, our sexuality, and our behaviour into. Historically, female identifying bodies that did not fit into these expectations of what a woman should be became the monstrous and fear invoking subject of myths and lore.
These photographs were my way of breaking down these walls and representing the body as something purposefully monstrous, out of bounds and at times not even as a body at all. The forms create a sense of voyeuristic intrigue as well as repulsion in its audience. They challenge the viewers perception of what is simply an object and what is a figure to be gazed upon. Some of these pieces show multiple figures within one body, and in these photos I was particularly interested in capturing the ideas of women’s solidarity or women as a group coming together, forming a cohesive and powerful whole.
So, in this sense, what is hidden are complex and dynamic bodies that are, in a way, reduced to, or only seen through the lens of these norms, standards and expectations. The aim of this work is to ask us to think beyond sometimes superficial impositions or appearances (what we see), and challenge ourselves to delve into the mysterious or unknown (what is hidden).
About author:
Allison Morris is a fine art photographer based in Montreal, Quebec and has exhibited internationally in Florence, Rome, Belgrade, and Sardinia. She received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Photography at the Ontario College of Art and Design University, and spent her third year of study abroad as part of OCAD University’s Off-Campus Florence program in Italy. Allison recently participated in her first artist residency in Sardinia and has had her work featured in numerous publications including The Huffington Post.
Allison’s artistic practice explores themes of female representation, the construction of gender, beauty, youth, identity, and performance from a feminist perspective. She uses self-portraiture and traditionally feminine materials to challenge our perceptions of the body and the boundaries it creates.
Historically, we have been eager to categorize women and make assumptions about their abilities, limitations, and overall status, and have not paid sufficient attention to what these persons are beyond their social roles or identities.
The female body is constantly being pressured to be something that it’s not. Boundaries are always being drawn as to what shapes, sizes, and categories we should squeeze our bodies, our sexuality, and our behaviour into. Historically, female identifying bodies that did not fit into these expectations of what a woman should be became the monstrous and fear invoking subject of myths and lore.
These photographs were my way of breaking down these walls and representing the body as something purposefully monstrous, out of bounds and at times not even as a body at all. The forms create a sense of voyeuristic intrigue as well as repulsion in its audience. They challenge the viewers perception of what is simply an object and what is a figure to be gazed upon. Some of these pieces show multiple figures within one body, and in these photos I was particularly interested in capturing the ideas of women’s solidarity or women as a group coming together, forming a cohesive and powerful whole.
So, in this sense, what is hidden are complex and dynamic bodies that are, in a way, reduced to, or only seen through the lens of these norms, standards and expectations. The aim of this work is to ask us to think beyond sometimes superficial impositions or appearances (what we see), and challenge ourselves to delve into the mysterious or unknown (what is hidden).
About author:
Allison Morris is a fine art photographer based in Montreal, Quebec and has exhibited internationally in Florence, Rome, Belgrade, and Sardinia. She received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Photography at the Ontario College of Art and Design University, and spent her third year of study abroad as part of OCAD University’s Off-Campus Florence program in Italy. Allison recently participated in her first artist residency in Sardinia and has had her work featured in numerous publications including The Huffington Post.
Allison’s artistic practice explores themes of female representation, the construction of gender, beauty, youth, identity, and performance from a feminist perspective. She uses self-portraiture and traditionally feminine materials to challenge our perceptions of the body and the boundaries it creates.