After the Annunciation

2025, oil on canvas, 50 x 100cm

Drawing upon Marian iconography and feminist theology, this work examines the exploitation and idealisation of the female body through the figure of the Virgin Mary. Revered as an image of purity and untouched motherhood, Mary is often removed from the physical reality of birth - the blood, pain, exhaustion, sacrifice, and bodily rupture that motherhood entails. The work confronts the impossible paradox imposed upon her: a virgin girl transformed into a sacred vessel, denied bodily autonomy in favour of patriarchal ideals. Fragmented and suspended, the figure reflects the burden placed upon women to continually reconstruct themselves around systems that sanctify their suffering while concealing its physical and psychological cost.