Art San Diego 2022
SEPTEMBER 9th-11th, 2022
Socio-Political artist Fatima Franks also known as “mAO” is here to make changes in how women are perceived and viewed in the current global culture. Through her powerful and thought-provoking imagery, the artist feels the need to voice an opinion and enact a change in the flawed patriarchal system. The works presented at the San Diego 22 Trade Fair were one of the many depictions of an existentialist feminist. The artist narrates the privileges of freedom and with it comes scrutiny and stigma. Franks composite photographic works are carefully constructed using digital brushes. Originally trained in traditional methods of painting, sculpture, and printmaking, the artist utilizes the methodologies using new media techniques to create her mixed media digital collages and moving images/film.
Franks creates narratives to affirm and document how the current state of affairs with women in society. Though this issue has been ongoing since the first feminist wave, artists such as Franks are set to re-invent and revisit the feminist dialogue as this ongoing issue still needs amendments in the USA and beyond.
Through her poetic and beautifully executed imagery, Franks illustrates the repercussions which come with independence and non-conformity when adapting freedom in conservative parts of the world. Her works often portray feminist ideologies in conflict with existentialist philosophy; hence an ongoing issue. In her recent works, Franks shows patterns of duality in the progressive women who embrace freedom but consequently are prone to be sexually objectified. The artwork The Neon and the Faded Ladies (IV: A Party II) shows the self-degradation of erotically posed women as objects of appetite. The bare-skinned pair of the four women are intentionally obliterated while the other two fuchsia pink, luminous, and ‘neon’ females are to be seen as novelty goods. In the Two Mehndi Girls-Wallflowers, one can witness a satirical analogy to represent the compliant docile perception of women ‘prepared’ before her wedding; common in South Asian cultures. Franks clearly conveys the idea of what she has to say rather than what she simply sees. Here the two identical women face each other warranting human conditions exposing beauty, horror, and satire. In her intricate and beautifully executed works, Franks devises ways to employ a cultural rebellion against the ongoing social strife of gender inequality.
Among other works exhibited at the Art San Diego Art Fair and Trade Show, 22 were The Snow Princesses, The Meeting, and Conversations with the Blue Flowers which piqued curiosity and high interest in both the attendees and art collectors.
Fatima Franks lives and works in Orange County California.
L to R: The Snow Princesses, The Neon and the Faded Ladies (IV: A Party II), Two Mehndi Girls-Wallflowers
Bottom Row: The Meeting, Conversations with the Blue Flowers
