“This vessel is the first of the Unsung Muses series, and it references two compositions by Cezanne in which women are seen bathing, undisturbed by the voyeurism of the artist and/or viewer. However, in my version, the two women on the “back” are staring straight out at the audience as if they are perturbed by our interruption. The text reads from front to back, “we are not here for / your viewing pleasure.” This piece is meant to speak to the way women are constantly objectified and ogled for male gratification while offering a firm statement on our autonomy.”
We Belong Only to Ourselves, 2014 Sculpture
We Belong Only to Ourselves, 2014
Hand-built and carved porcelain vase
Dimensions: 16 H x 20.5 W x 8 D in.
Weight: 18 lbs
Alex Hodge was always drawn to the arts and regularly channeled her creativity as a child whether in watercolor classes or scrapbooking with her mother. Hodge focuses on prioritizing women’s narratives in all aspects of her work. Through the decorative and symbolic details, she hints at narratives without completing them to invite the viewer to participate in creating meaning. The women she invents exist in the present but is of the imagined future in which we all have room to flourish, to tell our stories, to give and receive love, and to express the beauty and pain of the human condition. Fundamentally, her artworks are a celebration of the tenacity and vulnerability of women and clay, an interplay of history and hope.
