Gently Lay Your Words Down

Acrylic on Canvas

Black pine frame

280mm x 330mm x 60mm

This series started with looking at Classical sculpture and the idealised female form through the ages - prominently through the male gaze.
Across culture, continents and time, women have been directed to fit into an ideal. These works celebrate embodiment and a rewriting of the muse at pose; Owning and enjoying her own body through her own experience.

Born in Australia and raised on the shores of Taranaki, New Zealand.Tanya Blong's extensive overseas travel has enriched and informed the direction of her work.

"I am interested in society at leisure and the act of being idle, It's not only the sensory aspect of this state of being but looking at leisure throughout history and what it looks like for people today".
The luxury of time being a major theme with questions posed of access, privilege and exclusion.

Note: The frame shown is made in a virtual setting to give an example as close as possible to the framing available