ARTIST STATEMENT
This piece presents two imprints of my lower abdomen and intends to reflect on reproductive rights. I have always felt intrigued by how my body prepares itself every month to be ready to gestate life. It’s a process that happens whether motherhood is desired or not. It’s not an active, conscious choice. This carries specific social implications like the expectations that society has on people who menstruate, resulting in fear and pressure that comes as cyclical as periods. Fear of lacking bodily autonomy due to the possibility of unwanted pregnancies and the pressure that entails making a different choice.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Mariana Rey (she/her) earned her BFA in Visual Arts, with a minor in graphic and audiovisual expression at the Pontifical Xavierian University of Colombia in 2022. She previously completed a Photography Summer Workshop at the School of Visual Arts in New York in 2018. She explores different media to address her interests towards the body, gender, and territory from the tensions of what’s public and private, the inside and the outside, and understanding the intimate as a political force. Her work has been exhibited at different shows and festivals including “Franja local” at the Cinemateca de Bogotá (Colombia, 2022) and “Festival Atemporal” (Peru, 2021).
She was also chosen as one of the finalists in the “Latin American Illustration Awards 2021” from Palermo University in Argentina and participated in the exhibition “A33 Ilustradores Javerianos 2022”. She’s the author of “The body as a ground pole” (2021) a self published book that approaches the processes of loss that being an immigrant entailed for her while questioning the relationship between body and territory. She co-directs Las que cruzan, a collective with interests on movement, the everyday, and intimacy while exploring multiple media.
© Mariana R. Rey