Corsages

Collected throughout junior high and high school, and salvaged from a box marked “Dumb Flowers”, the corsages photographed in this series are imbued with socio-cultural identity construction and personal history, often explored in feminist theory. Ms. West has altered the perspective from the very personal, each one was literally pinned on the artist during her adolescence, to the universal. The corsages become signifiers for personal growth and individual experience for all who have endured the female experience. The long dead flowers have been treated with tenderness and ferocity, a feeling of futility and yet, hope, just as one would explore their own personal memories.