Digital Commons Network^™

Going Dutch, Aimee J. Valentine

Student Projects

Going Dutch is a narrative exploration of the boundaries of object/subject relationships through image, material, and form. Beds, body parts, containers, food, and domestic appliances appear in the work as symbols of production, possession, and consumption. Objecthood and subjecthood are not fixed states, but flexible and conditional. We engage with perceptions of object/subject daily, according to our own socio-political biases. I investigate these biases by portraying typical objects as subjects, while typical subjects become objects. I am interested in the ways we interact with our surroundings, and how we consciously and unconsciously objectify others—and ourselves, when we identify as recipients …