I Spit on Your Grave, 2020
series of 10 paintings of 30 x 25 each and 1 of 65 x 40 in acrylic on glass arranged in red colored sand.
Rereading of images taken from the controversial sub-genre of films of the 70s called rape-revenge. In these narratives there is a rape / abuse victim who seeks redemption through revenge with appealing and sensational images of both the crime suffered by the woman and that of her revolt. The purpose of this remake that occurs through painting is to investigate the construction of the popular imagination around misogyny, violence against women and the rape book during a moment of great expression of the feminist movement. To observe this period through the exploitation film (or appealing cinema) is to face the popular morbid reaction to the context of the time. The films are filled with such images that offend inappropriate content. The victim's humiliation is shown abjectly and ends with a spectacular revenge involving traumas and fears of the male psyche, such as castration and a woman "out of her mind".
Since I was a child, rape was totally present in my imagination. He heard detailed reports in the form of an alert or in the form of malicious neighborhood gossip. A perpetual narrative that made it very clear to me how limited my geographical space in the world was and would be. There were rules of the hour, which street to go to or not, how walking alone would be suicidal on my part, the spaces and clothes forbidden. Never any mention of any kind of defense or the expression of legitimate hatred of this limited condition. The discourse that was repeated was resigned and fearful of the restriction of environments and freedom in the face of uncontrollable and violent male desire. The message was straightforward: you are doomed to be defined by your survival. These cases are filed in a personal collection of rape and every woman is haunted by the stories she heard and the images she created in her head. I remember when a friend went to snoop on her mother's things and discovered a report of rape in a diary. She read excerpts to me. The part where the mother mentioned the rapist's eyes was especially disconcerting. She said that that look made her understand how horrible the world was. The horror was no longer distant or fiction, he was there, looking at her, the boogey man himself. (…) There are places a woman cannot go - her world is smaller geographically than that of a man. It is forced to retreat as men advance, constantly invading its space. In real life, instead of claiming their right to access certain places, women are forced to avoid them. However, the protagonist Thana, from the film Ms.45, goes to these places deliberately; she puts herself in dangerous situations and reinforces her femininity by coming out alive. If survival defines a woman, her methods of survival are what differentiates one woman from another.
