Bio:
Virginia Mallon is an artist working in paint, photography, and mixed media. Her work contemplates religious, historic, and mythological women, personal histories (including her own), and the psychological undercurrents of modern society. With influences from social realism, political, and feminist art, it touches upon the angst and trauma of contemporary America, with a female point-of-view, on serial rapists, serial killers, forced birth, and religious fanatics, and ongoing attack on reproductive rights.
Mallon's work explores painting on non-traditional surfaces, such as burlap, slate, found objects, fabric, and cigar boxes as well as oil on canvas. Recent projects use discarded roof tiles from a former state-run (1885-1996) condemned psychiatric hospital. Now a hotspot for urbex explorers, it provides a wealth of unusual poignant pieces of history on which to paint. The added symbolism using a piece of broken shelter from an insane asylum seems appropriate for our times.
Statement:
The inspiration for Baby Games came from the revelation of how women carry within them the eggs for their offspring and, within them, the eggs for future generations as well. It is remarkable how all these beings exist simultaneously, like nesting dolls, for our species. It is a reminder how we are born with a finite number of eggs that need to be protected from overzealous church leaders and/or government officials. It has to be our right and our choice when and who to bring into the world. It is my body, my choice.