Artist Statement
Liza Jo Eilers parses through a historicized patriarchal gaze, asking questions of not only what we see today, but more importantly how these modes of seeing become an interwoven cultural and national identity itself, reckoning with American culture's failures and aftermath. Obsessed with entertainment, Eilers wonders, what it means to have a good time, who is a good time and for whom is the good time.
Most recently, Eilers ‘wet t-shirt paintings’ —where white hydrochromic ink* is utilized as a censor— examines the operations of the All-American Girl Next Door as she operates parallel to actual male desire. Sometimes revealing what is expected and other times not. Can the pleasure of “revealing” the image supersede that of seeing the image itself? Or is it just another facade of beauty and celebration with an deeper unsettling and sinister undertone.
*when ink is activated by water, it goes see-thru to reveal below, once it evaporates ink returns to opaque white
