Kartina Coombs

My work is governed and guided by my emotions, as I attempt to understand and search for the role and positions of a woman. Through the use of fibrous material, my works explore the impact and intrusion of the ‘Other’ on the ‘I’; the ‘Other’ in representation of either an external or internal being to the self. The works emphasizes the social insecurities and turmoil that a woman faces as she struggles and becomes displaced by her daily life in an attempt to satisfy herself, partner, family, friends and life on a whole, which all create an enterprise for conflict. The ‘I’ becomes absent as the Other prevails and creates a structure and void of neurotic divergence within.

The current direction of my work has explored the social impositions placed on the female body, with regards to the female reproductive systems and the womb in particular. The roles played within the various stages of the female reproductive cycle are continuously critiqued, sometimes to the point of an analysis of its presence or absence, due in part to perceptions of whether the reproductive roles are being played or not. Such impositions results in the dissection of the body, both physically and psychologically. Women see the womb as an Other, a regulator of relationships with the Other.

In attempting to understand the self in relation to the Other, it becomes an enterprise in conflict. My artwork manifests such emotional conflicts, especially given that the level of impact of the Other, guides the direction of the artworks produced; and perhaps, make the works autobiographical and confessional. Peculiarities define the relationships between the I and Other(s) and presence play an important role in such situations. The presence of the other verses the absence gives meaning to the notion of being. Presence and absence may explicitly rely upon the states in which it is found and it is this state that is expressed.