Juliet Fife
She/Her

The Woman Who Slept with God

The Woman Who Slept with God focuses on my pursuit to gain greater gender equality by focusing on gendered norms and the marginalization of women in American society through organized religion and our own government. When portraying women's oppression, it's imperative to take people out of their comfort zones and question their morality. My religious and political points of view are personal, they demonstrate how organized religion and our government acts as a patriarchal ideology that legitimizes the oppression of women. The Woman Who Slept with God centers on understanding how religious and political agendas affect the social and civil rights of women in The United States. Through mixed media, my work illustrates how women’s bodies are depicted as assets and products available for consumption by the mass by utilizing the same visual language the mass media uses to normalize these gender stereotypes.   

 LED Signs flash biblical text and excerpts from the opinion that ruled in favor of Jane Roe in the Roe v. Wade case that speaks to women's lack of autonomy. These are placed on panels that overlay Christian iconography and images of the female nude, reflecting how religion and politics serve as a paradox. The Madonna and Child are constructed using pornographic magazines to create faces that speak to the notion of the male gaze, representation, and expectations. The material contradicts the representation of women when assembled into a holy figure, the Madonna. Not only is her face assembled using pornographic imagery, but she is also undoubtedly mournful about her situation and the forces in her life making decisions on behalf of her body. The Madonna and Child implicate the viewer by putting them in the position of a voyeur by objectifying her through the male gaze; the male gaze is integrated into the Madonna and Child whereas the political and religious crosses reject it. The Woman Who Slept with God has everything to do with asking hard questions about how the systems we operate within and the beliefs we hold may be at great odds with our own morality.