Art

Petra Collins has been focused on creating a body work that captures emotional distress in young females. These deeply personal and private images address complex issues about a generation coming of age in a moment of unprecedented access to social media. Collins, a cultural presence in her own right (artist, curator, filmmaker, actress, model, and often cited icon for young women which she reaches via her 438k followers on Instagram), turns her camera on friends and acquaintances, amplifying their emotions and giving them permission to be vulnerable and real. 24 Hour Psycho addresses the age–old discussion of women as emotional and, therefore, inferior or suspect–something to be managed. By owning the flippantly dismissive term “psycho,” Collins appropriates the concept of female hysteria and celebrates it with powerful, intense and beautiful imagery of young women who have agency even in their distressed state. “Girls’ sadness is not passive, self–involved or shallow; it is a gesture of liberation, it is articulate and informed, it is a way of reclaiming agency over our bodies, identities, and lives.” – Audrey Wollen, artist, Sad Girl Theory. The creation of these images is a collaborative process between the artist and her subjects. Collins works with a small group of women who take turns being photographed and acting as assistants holding lights, talking and contributing to the mood of the setting. The resulting images are the outcome of these intense sessions. Tender yet violent, they assert the value of feeling for feeling’s sake. By today’s media standard, an “imperfect” or “shameful” image of a young woman becomes an impactful statement, calling upon the viewer to re-contextualize preconceived notions of beauty, power, youth, feminism and equality. Petra Collins (b. 1992) is an artist and curator living in NYC. Shooting since the age of 15, her images are fueled by self-discovery and contemporary femininity which explore the complex intersection of life as a young woman online and off. Collins’s images offer an unflinching honesty, exploring the privacies and publicities of growing up as a woman at a moment when female bodies are ubiquitously hyper-mediated by Photoshop and social media. Collins has curated a handful of shows: Gynolandscape and Pussy Pat, New York City, NY; Strange Magic, Los Angeles, CA; Literally Bye, Art Basel, Miami, FL; and Comforter, SFAQ[Project]Space, San Francisco, CA. She has also given lectures at educational and art institutions such as York University and The Art Gallery of Ontario. Her work can be seen in publications including: I.D., Dazed & Confused, NY Mag, Purple, Interview, Vice and more. This year she released a short film series called Making Space about teen dancers, and has a curated book called Babe published by Random House out now.