In the Dutch still life paintings of the 17th century—with their platters of half-slurped oysters, sweating cheeses, split fruits, and wilted blooms—we spectators are witness to an aftermath. They are compositional fictions, fantasy picnics which have taken place before our arrival on the scene. Who laid out these weird feasts? Who ate? Who knows?
Aftermath is also the subject of these still lifes. They investigate the consequences of the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe vs. Wade, the consequences on women’s reproductive health and freedom. In the months leading up to that decision, information about how to give oneself an abortion surged across social-media platforms. This is the sad, secret knowledge passed from woman to woman in the absence of safe and legal abortion care.
On first look, like their Dutch precursors, the images convey abundance: fruits and flowers, herbs and vessels. But these tablescapes are macabre, confronting the viewer with the tools and tactics that desperate women used to end unwanted pregnancies before abortion was an enshrined right, and are once again using in a post-Roe world. These dangerous home abortifacients are now the reality for many women across America.
Among the classical Dutch still life style, there is a sub-genre known as vanitas paintings, which serve to remind the viewer of one’s mortality through not-so-subtle emblems like burning candles, and human skulls. I evoked this history throughout the series to underline the few, desperate choices women have to end a pregnancy and the mortal danger that lurks amidst that desperation.
Adopting the style of classic Dutch paintings has allowed me to arrange everyday items in a familiar framework, casting a feeling of ease and prosperity over the photos, which, on closer examination, tell a much darker, more perilous story. It is a story of the present plunged back to the past, back to a time when our rights for an abortion were limited and our very freedom rested in the objects, plants and pills that surrounded us. Using the antiquated style of the classical still life in this series of photos sparks a conversation with the past, a world which we thought was long behind us but with the reversal of Roe v Wade, is here once more.
Artist Statement edited from Dana Goodyear's article written in collaboration for this series done for The Washington Post.