Orchids

The Orchids series highlights the flower being used as a symbol for the vagina and delicacy of the female form. I focused on the centre of the flower in order to visually represent what I found to be the most erotic portrayal of the orchid, turning a fragile flower into a sexual symbol for the female sex organ. Replacing the body for an object that resembles only the sexuality of the female form isolates the way we perceive femininity, turning a fragile flower into a symbol for the sexually moulded image of woman.  

Artists such as Georgia O’Keeffe and Robert Mapplethorpe both had a valued influence in my decisions for this series. From my previous series’ of works I have attempted to desexualise the female body by combining it with flowers – objects that are beautiful and feminine. From researching into the role of the flower regarding women and sexuality, it became apparent that historically the flower represents woman’s virginity and the ‘deflowering’ of women (taking the virginity of women).

From this information I explored the concept more thoroughly, working on the basis of the flower being used as a symbol for female sexuality. The use of the orchid heightened the visually sexual element of the work, and therefore increasing the symbolic meaning behind the images.

Laura Mulvey’s article ‘Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema’, part of her famous Male Gaze theory, threads through the main body of my work. My attempts to diminish the stereotypical view of women as sexual objects by turning the vagina into a symbol that represents strength and womanhood, denies the male viewer any sexual pleasure when looked at.