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Highlighting the imbalance of power between gender roles, the concept of empowerment is nuanced by ‘creatures’ illuminated against a dark backdrop across her canvas works, symbolic of the resilience and hopefulness possessed by women. Naomi builds upon layers of paint swayed by her intuition to create a strong foundation for her female forms. Further captured in the identities of these partial human figures is the transformative nature of our existence. Like an unfinished work, they will continue to morph into changeable forms over time as a metaphor for all the different layers of life, identity and meaning. In her distinctive way, Naomi attempts to redefine what it means to be human through her inquest into the female body. Using the body as a framework, Naomi always begins her brushstrokes by assessing her physical components. The process of dissecting and disassembling her starting point then comes after, helping her to identify underlying feelings and emotions.
Larger than life in scale, the feminine creature portrayed in Mother 4 is her latest assemblage of different mediums surfaced together. Immersing herself in an introspective space, the work interweaves all the ideas and notions that came to mind during its process, which are manifested in progressive coats of charcoal and paint. Depth and intensity make for an evocative piece through her use of dark colours, resulting in a beautifully haunting disposition of the female form and her companion. Naomi’s works appear to ask, where does our strength and power come from? How can this be projected into everything else? Through Mother 1’s enticing gaze, she seeks to question and encourage us to look deep within to find our own answers. ‘In Her Body’ denotes in itself – a process of connecting with one’s soul, of embodying the core power stored within all of us.