Gabbi Culham-Putnoki

x Forest Shelter x

This piece allows the viewer to escape into an idealized world where nature and human beings exist in perfect unity.

“I challenge the critical 'Gaze' of the female form, as a female artist taking agency and authorship to the image.The form fuses with the anthropomorphized landscape, a vibrant utopia where all natural life is connected. The surface of the skin is infused with the glowing color of oil paints, acting as a layer between nakedness and the spectator, covering and exposing simultaneously.My work is an exploration of the human will and it's rejection ofNature's intrinsic balance. The natural elements guide and nurture myfigures in different ways. Firstly when the body is placed nude in nature,this is an idealization. Her shameless nudity shows us a glimpse of whathas been lost, a world where conscious purpose does not disrupt thesystem this earth has crafted for billions of years. Allegorically she is Eveand we are castaways from the garden. When we scrutinize her shebecomes the victim of human abstraction, something she knows nothingof. If only we invited the ideals of the preconscious mind into our liveswe could understand her”