Major Project B: one false toe-nail, an unidentified hair and a stubbed out cigarette

'I wake up, and resume peeling off the remnants of last night’s licentiously red nail varnish;

a clumsily applied topcoat gracelessly covering a week’s worth of large chips and scrapes…

Really ought to remember to buy nail polish remover.

Sluggishly advancing to the shower,

I consider the daily dilemma;

To shave or not to shave.

                                                               

Today, armpits are a must;

having crossed the acceptable boundary where underarm fluff may be blamed on a shedding woollen jumper.

Legs aren’t necessary.

Last night’s short skirt entailed the full works; exfoliating, moisturising and shaving (even behind the knees). They’ll do for at least three days.

Eyebrows are still recovering from last week’s over enthusiastic plucking session and should be left well alone for the foreseeable future.

A post-shower coffee is complimented beautifully by what is most definitely my LAST cigarette.

…barring the one designated for emergency use only,

…and the necessary afternoon-break-cigarette.

…not to mention to strays that inhabit my handbag, only to surface once I’ve had a drink.'

The work both brings to light, and examines, the seemingly nonsensical, illogical and somewhat inexplicable neuroses which inhabit us as women; the obvious importance of these peculiarities in shaping a woman’s routine remaining baffling to their comparatively uncomplicated counterparts.

To anyone in possession of a Y chromosome, the significance of the role of the neuroses on the average woman is often underestimated. Amplified and reinforced by a £14 billion beauty industry and the prevalence of paper-based media culture, the average woman crumbles. Paling in comparison to her airbrushed, perfectly pruned, glossy equivalents, the average woman is forced to become possessed by neuroses.

The work presents the story of the neurotic relationship between womanhood and the unnecessary tentativeness to the four female neuroses; the unspoken rules of nail varnish application and removal, the unwarranted complex of the constant pruning and tweaking of body hair and the endless (and fruitless) quitting smoking process.

The work narrates a social commentary with an empathetic ear; glorifying the inglorious idiosyncrasies that make womanhood, but perhaps more importantly the work attempts to engage with other women, those of the sisterhood of: to pluck or not to pluck, to shave or not to shave, to puff or not to puff and to refresh or just fill in the gaps.

Is this nature or nurture, instinct or influence?

With a nod and acknowledgement to our media–fuelled world . . .

Books, prints and objects are utilized to present:

the philosophical meanderings of the female brain

the unreasonable reasonings and questionable complexes

the mock-retail nature and consumer-driven format, exhibiting the workings of the average eyebrow-plucking, ‘last cigarette’ smoking, nail polish peeling woman:

a celebration of these quintessentially female neuroses.