Saskia Hertell-Moraloki, Conformity’s Strangulation, Installation, Dimensions variable, 2023
Conformity’s Strangulation is an installation I created in response to the theme of peer pressure amongst women themselves, hence women versus women. Peer pressure is pressure that one experiences by “people of one’s age and social group” to “do the same things as” they do “in order to be liked or respected by them” (Dhull & Beniwal 2017:256). In this case women are each other’s peers. The visual hint of sewing, stitching, fixing fabric etc. and the lace-like and patterned fabrics suggest women’s clothing.
The circular movement of each form, the spider-like creatures strangled in their chaotic web, the bright contrasting colours and the process of wrapping or “strangling” each stuffed form, suggests the idea of pressure and in return gives a feeling of tension amongst women. The circular motion of every object in the installation hints at the idea that peer pressure is continuous and repetitive.
I express my personal feeling about women’s peer pressure by comparing the general feeling of tension amongst women to my personal feeling of suffocation when I am anxious. As I am forced to conform to beauty standards amongst women, I feel strangled. Therefore, I chose to exhibit this installation in a gap between two walls (behind UP Student Gallery) to further emphasize the feeling of being squashed in, hence the entire installation literally cannot breathe.
Sources consulted: Dhull, P & Beniwal, RD. 2017. Dealing with Peer Pressure. Online International Interdisciplinary Research Journal, 7 November: 256-263.
I was born in 2001 in Pretoria, and I have been living in various areas in Pretoria. I attended the Deutsche Internationale Schule Pretoria and achieved Abitur level at that school. I am currently studying BA Fine Arts at the University of Pretoria.
Growing up in South Africa and having lived under difficult circumstances was one of the catalysts for my anxiety. There are various other experiences that contributed towards me suffering from anxiety, however in my installation pieces I specifically explore my symptoms of anxiety rather than the cause of it. In each installation piece I focus on the materiality of the mediums I worked with and how these further contribute to the feeling and concept I am conveying.
I work with mixed media and gradually starting to incorporate text into my installations. The text in combination with the mediums I work with forms visual journal-like installations which ultimately are used to describe my everyday life when dealing with anxiety. Therefore, in future artworks, I not only want to focus on my symptoms of anxiety but also more specifically on how these contribute to my everyday experiences and way of living.