Holofernus Contemplating Suicide

The conceptual imperative was provided by the historically popular subject matter of ’Judith beheading Holo fernus’, most famously painted by seminal female artist Artemisia Gentileschi in 1612. The work plays on the strong idiomatic performances of empowered femininity as it stands in opposition to crises-stricken masculinity. Both these performative roles have been usurped and recast within the same actor. The masculine and feminine forces contend for dominance in a fluid construction of identity, ultimately becoming an allegorical vanitas of transient gender performances.