Burden

Year

2021

Medium

oil/paper

Dimensions

40x30

Series

Therapy Project

In this work, gender is revealed as a form of physical, almost bodily pressure. The central figure has no face or individual features: she becomes not a specific person, but an image of a body onto which expectations, roles, and other people’s ideas of femininity are projected. The figures around her are not simply present — they seem to hold her, surround her, and make the space heavier. Their poses suggest support, worship, and pressure at the same time. This makes the scene ambiguous: the female community may appear both as a source of strength and as a system of norms from which it is difficult to escape. The heroine stands at the center, but she does not appear free. Her body seems to be placed on display, surrounded by others’ gestures, and no longer belongs entirely to itself. This is where the main tension of the work emerges: gender is shown not as an abstract social category, but as a burden carried through the body, the gaze, expectations, and imposed roles. The dark background and dense painting intensify the sense of heaviness. The space around the figure does not open up, but closes in, turning the painting into a scene of inner pressure. This is not a direct protest or declaration, but a state: a quiet, heavy understanding that being a woman often means existing inside countless projections made by others.