Statement
2018
Artist statement
THE ENCYCLOPAEDIA OF SEX PRACTICE: AGES SIXTEEN TO TWENTY-FOUR (AND SOME AFTER) is a polemical exploration into the sexual and bodily narratives prescribed from adolescence to early adulthood; a lived experience that has had passivity, submission and obedience inculcated into the undercurrents of my being. Using the 1932 text The Encyclopedia of Sex Practice by Dr Norman Haire as a framework, I endeavour to revise the narrative from one of docility to one of ownership and active decision making. Though seemingly saccharine, the work seeks not to subvert the constraints of femininity or reframe the constructs of being female but rather to challenge notions of societal complacency in allowing such experiences to take place. The act of sharing a secret means it is no longer one, and through this process the work aims to have a cathartic impact on the mind, allowing it to let go of memories that should no longer have an influence over experiences of sex and love.
Artist bio
Chloe Bartram, a founding member of Lumina Collective, is a photographic artist and visual narrator currently residing in the seaside city of Fremantle. Using the conventions of social documentary and photography, Chloe endeavours to explore the idiosyncratic nature of the human condition, to create new perspectives on the Aussie outback and to centre the lived experiences of women.