Adult Content Warning
in our garden is part of a larger artist book project with my colleague Trés Nadal. Mentored by Kikuo Johnson and Dan Wood during our RISD Wintersession 2023, we led a self-initiated project of risographing, letter-pressing, and binding a limited edition of 50 books. Our artist book, Femme, uses comics to explore the theme of femininity and womanhood. We both illustrated our respective comics.
In my comic, I explore femininity as performance, cultivation, and a form of sexual reclamation. Heeding Judith Butler's famous arguments, I recall the Incan goddess Mama Coca, the goddess of coca plants. In stories about Mama Coca, she was able to produce more coca plants through her promiscuity and sexual independence; however, men would abuse her, and ultimately kill her, for her very promiscuity. Punishment and reward were a compelling idea for me here--the pursuit of feminine sexual desire was seen as a negative, but used to the benefit of the other party for sexual gratification and the cultivation of more coca. The push and pull of these themes led me to create this comic to reflect the performance of femininity in the scope of sexuality.
Copies are available for purchase.
