Bio
My name is Eliza Clifford and I am a multidisciplinary artist and graphic designer graduating from the University of Wisconsin Madison with a BFA in Graphic Design, Printmaking, and Comics and a Certificate in Gender and Women's Studies.
Statement
My work focuses on fantastical and odd narratives located in mundane environments and explores ideas of gender, freedom, and how identities are constructed (and destructed). The narratives I create are focused on crafting familiar everyday scenarios like getting dressed, sitting in traffic, going on a hike or getting groceries. These unique characters, primarily women, have exaggerated physical features, such as large heads, peculiar noses or long, lanky arms and legs. I place these figures in environments that seem normal but are slightly off, just like them. By doing so I compose images that question how abnormal, physical attributes make us ponder who we are and how we function within society. My work expresses a desire for feminist ideals to be realized through the liberation of identity.
Starting from medieval etchings to modern graphic novels, print media functions in a position that shares a space with high and low art, as a fast and inexpensive means to publicize ideas, question authority or make the personal political. The greater accessibility of printmaking has made it a deviant media, historically employed when provoking authority and investigating taboo subject matter. I feel as though I am deeply connected to the history of printmaking as a medium and its traditions of rebellion and profanity.
My newest work explores how feminist ideas can upend the historical and social ideas of womanhood. Women are often displayed as figures of timidity and fragility in Western art, looked upon by the subversive male gaze. By reversing the narrative and depicting active girls and passive boys, the tables are turn and overthrow contemporary socialite’s male gaze. I also am working towards using a variety of media
Let's connect!
@eliza_anneee
elizaclifford397@gmail.com