Amy Conti

Enclosure (2020)

'Enclosure' is from an experimental photoshoot where latex hands were placed on the body, appearing to control or restrict the female subject. The results represent ‘touch’ as a foreign invasion of the body and the external force of societal expectations placed onto women (where the positioning of hands near the womb signals to issues related to women's reproductive rights).

[Black and white photo of latex hands on a woman's stomach].

Unfolding (2020)

The ongoing pandemic has necessitated that I adapt my practice to working remotely. This challenge, although initially daunting, has made me a much more flexible and resourceful worker, such as using my garage at home as a photography studio. Although the lack of studio space and university facilities at times has been tough, I am definitely grateful for the fact that I now can make a more conscious effort to rely on what I already have at my disposal.

[Latex hand fashioned into an earring and modelled].

Dress-up (2020)

With my 'dress-up series, I presented femininity as a farcical performance through photography and videos. Edited pink for its association to women and its artificiality, the latex relief of a mannequin represents feminine ideals as well as Freud's theory of the uncanny in its ambiguity between what is real and artificial; living and dead. The morph suit modelled also possesses the potential to be restrictive, suffocating, and protective all at once.

[Latex skin-cast of a mannequin bust, modelled over the subject wearing a morph suit].

Life in Her Hands (2020)

'Life in Her Hands' represents the uncanny permanence of how mother and child are fused together genetically, emotionally, and once were physical. The unnerving nature of this is represented in the lifelessness of the hands and what they're composed of: jelly (which also mirrors the reality that the mother and child both nourish and starve one another, metaphorically and physically).

The inherent association of this work to cooking, eating, and mealtimes, also relate it to the domestic role of the mother and ritualistic practices that normalise repressive gender roles.

Overall, this project referred to Freud’s theory of the uncanny and applied it to women’s spaces in the world. Creating wearable pieces and videos (as featured on my YouTube), I critiqued his phallogocentric writings which feed into restrictive definitions of women as mere fetish, home, or mother.

[Miniature plastic babies cast in agar jelly and photographed].

Reflections (2021)

Most recently, I have directed my attention to the effects of minimised physical connection as a result of COVID-19 and the upsetting dynamic that both touch - and a lack of it - can be pernicious.

Thankfully, my friends and family were open to sharing their personal experiences of this for my video titled 'Notre monde se touche', translated as: “Our world touches itself, can be touched, is touched; our world is in touch” (Derrida, J., 2005, p. 53). This work represents just how pertinent being ‘in touch’ with one another is, which the current circumstances can be said to especially shine a light on.

This photograph specifically is an example of posters I put up around Loughborough and my home town. I combined meditative mantras with informative government guidelines which, although possessing extremely different purposes and generating disparate tones independently, somehow bear similarities when placed together (for instance, in their reference to the body and responsiveness).

[Black and white text-based poster].