Artist Statement
When I look back at my childhood and how I was raised I am confronted with ideas and notions on how a woman is supposed to act and “perform” for society. Through my pictorial and arts- related explorations of womanhood, I strive to push back against the traditional norms that have dominated my upbringing, in the process highlighting the challenges of my own internalizations of a women’s role and my attempts to disrupt and unlearn what I have inherited.
Beginning with personal narratives and conversations with the maternal figures in my life, I set out to construct my own perception of space, and inheritance, based on memory. I incorporate human-scaled objects and props, the stuff of childhood and growing up, to ornament this investigation of perception. It is my intention to have the viewer question my intentionality and awareness, to wonder about where I am situated in the narrative of the work.
The nature of control continues to be a recurring theme in my work. I use the camera as a tool to elucidate my own emotions and my relationship to myself and those closest to me. My current studio practice is a back-and-forth between pathos and this notion of control – a constant search for who I am as a woman and how I want to present myself to society. In this way, I hope to leave an inquiry of the matriarchal and the matrilineal for the generations to come.
Artist Bio
Quincey Spagnoletti is a Boston-based photographer whose work explores identity and womanhood through photo installations and performance. Drawing inspiration from her own upbringing, she weaves together human representation and archival imagery from her childhood, creating layered narratives. Spagnoletti earned her BA from Colgate University and an MFA from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University. Her work has been featured in the Boston Art Review, Der Greif, Photoworks UK, and the Leica Gallery, Boston. Recognized as a rising talent in contemporary photography, she was named a Top 25 Photographer to Watch by the Lenscratch Student Prize (2024), a Top 200 Critical Mass Finalist, and a Top 30 Finalist in the KLPA Autoportrait Awards.