Dr Sangeeta Sandrasegar
Take away that monster, 2009
Felt cotton thread, glass beads, sequins
Body: 122 x 151 cm, Head: 43 x 81 cm, Pegasus: 20 x 21 cm
“Taking the most hurt people out of society and punishing them in order to teach them how to live within society is, at best, futile. Whatever else a prisoner knows, she knows everything there is to know about punishment because that is exactly what she has grown up with. Whether it is childhood sexual abuse, indifference, neglect; punishment is most familiar to her”. Chris Tchaikovsky
Utilising one of the women's cells in the historic Wentworth Gaol the installation played out themes of female space in response to the title re-socialization. When woman inhabits the private, interior spaces of society her traditional place is at the home and the hearth, whilst throughout myth and folklore there are numerous examples of astute women incarcerated in their chambers and rooms. These mythic portraits of intelligent, isolated women seem to echo the contemporary image of the female felon as unwomanly women, where both are denied the place of home. The installation explores these tropes and tales of women-hood of home and cell, through the myth of the Medusa.
“Taking the most hurt people out of society and punishing them in order to teach them how to live within society is, at best, futile. Whatever else a prisoner knows, she knows everything there is to know about punishment because that is exactly what she has grown up with. Whether it is childhood sexual abuse, indifference, neglect; punishment is most familiar to her”. Chris Tchaikovsky
Utilising one of the women's cells in the historic Wentworth Gaol the installation played out themes of female space in response to the title re-socialization. When woman inhabits the private, interior spaces of society her traditional place is at the home and the hearth, whilst throughout myth and folklore there are numerous examples of astute women incarcerated in their chambers and rooms. These mythic portraits of intelligent, isolated women seem to echo the contemporary image of the female felon as unwomanly women, where both are denied the place of home. The installation explores these tropes and tales of women-hood of home and cell, through the myth of the Medusa.
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