Heels of Oppression

Description

This confronting ceramic sculpture presents two high-heeled shoes, each crowned with a disembodied head, pierced by protruding nails. The piece boldly interrogates the intersection of femininity, violence, and objectification. The high heel—a long-standing symbol of beauty, sexuality, and societal expectation—is weaponized here, transformed into a site of pain and control. The heads, stripped of agency, evoke the way women are often reduced to aesthetic objects, while the nails serve as a brutal reminder of the psychological and physical toll of misogyny. At once elegant and disturbing, the work compels viewers to question the cost of idealized femininity in a culture that so often commodifies and silences women.