Robyn LeRoy-Evans

Artist working with the human body, objects, spaces... ever in search of the erotic.

Untitled (back), 2013

"My work is underpinned by my fascination with, and personal understanding of, eroticism. I see the creation of my images as a private act, one that allows me to access parts of myself that are normally kept buried. I work to stimulate my viewer by using my body, and the objects that surround me, to generate physical, emotional, and psychological responses to the spaces I inhabit, visit, or stumble upon.

The female form features heavily; the viewer is confronted by awkward, unusual, and, at times, disturbing postures or poses. These are bodily manifestations of my own personal fears, anxieties, frustrations, and desires. Occasionally, the female figure is signified through its absence, being represented instead by vessels or draped fabric. I wish to provoke without becoming too over-prescriptive, to arouse without overwhelming. The formal, compositional, and aesthetic qualities of an image determine its construction.

My research into erotic literature, Japanese aesthetics, and the fashion photography of Guy Bordin, inform this methodology. A pivotal exhibition for me was Angels of Anarchy: Women Artists and Surrealism (2008); it was here that I first viewed the photography of Francesca Woodman. To me, Woodman’s images demonstrate a disturbed femininity, a sort of cryptic eroticism…elements that I hope to bring into my own work.

My most recent photographs have led me to question my work and position as an artist: What are the boundaries between photography and performance? What is the significance of the headless/faceless woman? What role does the female figure play in contemporary photography? How do I feel about being at once the (female) artist, subject, and (sex?) object? Finally, what is considered ‘erotic’ today?"

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