Masculinity is a perpetrator of the culture in which women are viewed only as bodies. Androcentrism categorizes feminine bodies alongside those of pests that Man desecrates, a feeling often indistinguishable from lust. I explore this phenomenon through entomology as a metaphor for the feminine experience. Insects are assigned value after they are taxidermized and fathomable. Through scrutinization, Man exercises predatory hunger and obsession, rearing His own theistic ideal of beauty out of the scum of His earth.

I grew up with framed taxidermied butterflies lining the walls of my kitchen. Even behind glass, they seemed vulnerable to Man’s touch. To my own. Their fragile bodies were preserved by calloused and practiced hands. It’s interesting to think about how many of them were discarded for imperfections beyond repair—a missing leg, a torn wing. A color palette so unappealing that there’s no desire to look at it.

One day I walked into the kitchen and the butterflies were gone. One of their wings was somehow damaged. There is simply no reason to keep ugly creatures around.

“HUSK” is an extended exploration of sexuality, consumption, display, objectification, ownership, bodies, and whatever feels right. The investigation of who exactly gets to be as they are, and who needs to be changed. How a being’s value is determined.

Please look at me. Hold me with both palms. Undress my skin until I am rid of my exoskeleton and my shell is discarded so that it may provide sustenance to smaller beings. Please leave me be. I want to be different. I don’t want you to change me. Do you think I’m beautiful? Would I look better with a smaller body? I can change. I wish you would stop looking at me. I don’t think you love me. I can give you control. I think you would like be better if you had control. Take what you need and leave the rest. I am reminded of your love when you consume the parts of me that you deem worthy. I hope one day all of me will be worthy.

I have lived most of my life feeling like a creature.

I invite viewers to confront their inner facade of dominance and male desire’s innate grotesqueness through the display of execution, dissection, and objectification of non-human subjects. I find the familiarity unsettling—and if you do not, you should have no issue dismembering my body, arranging it the way you find most appealing, and making me into something beautiful.