Taylor Yocom

Lives and works in St. Louis, MO

Artist statement

I smash pink harmonicas with pink milkshake glasses and tear pink nametags off of my chest. Drawing from Judith Butler’s theory, my work uses the gender performativity of female niceness as a jumping off point for exploration of gendered injustices and harassment. Using a sickeningly sweet aesthetic, I speak to this social phenomenon using the language women have traditionally been given – flowers, pattern, and an overload of pink. We are taught to smile and nod. We are seen as the comforters. And we say “sorry” too much “and um this really isn’t a big deal,” don’t we? Femininity is equated with niceness. Niceness is synonymous with being constantly agreeable. Niceness is not speaking your mind. Niceness is possessing low self-confidence. This schema of femininity creates a world in which women must fight to get heard, to push back against harassment and microaggressions – yet are punished if they do. My moving images and installations demonstrate tension in response to this dynamic through uncomfortable moments dripping in pink. A teapot keeps pouring. The cup is spilling over. The cake never makes it to the plates. The flower petals are violently chopped off. Yet, the trope of the performance lingers. A cheap satin curtain is always in the background. A laugh track reminds us that this is all pretend. This is all a performance – but what exactly is the performance? In my most recent project, for the nice girls in shows by bad men, I root the performance of female...

Artwork