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Here, the body’s surface points to the unseen. The portraits of these graceful and mysterious sitters aim to interrogate personhood and gender identity.
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All the women in the Life Mask portraits have Turner Syndrome). It is the second most common genetic condition after Down Syndrome. It is due to a partial or complete deletion of one of the two sex-determining X-chromosomes. The key features are short stature and infertility, due to the lack of ovaries. Many health issues ranging from problems with spatial awareness, hearing loss to early osteoporosis to heart and kidney problems can be associated with TS. Most features of this medical condition are hidden from public gaze..
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The mask-like faces may hint at questions such as: Are women with TS wearing femininity like a facade? Are they confined by a mask of silence, kept out of view, marginalised? What is a woman to do when she cannot fulfil society’s most valued female function of motherhood? These portraits want to symbolize the containment, confinement, isolation, alienation or disengagement women with TS often experience.
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