In the recent work by Ajean Lee Ryan, she employs the use of sewing, weaving, painting, drawing and installation to create poetic musings of her life being lived under a mesa in Glorieta, New Mexico. Running parallel to the investigations of the landscape, is also her explorations of the role of the domestic feminine, most specifically, the role of the geisha and the reinterpretation of the Asian mystique within Western culture. Both encompass Ms Ryan’s interest in the deceptively fragile and flimsy, themes that have simultaneous contradictions are of deep interest to her. The title of the exhibition is a direct reference to the stereotype of the subservient geisha but more broadly the subconscious conditioning of young girls to be good and lady-like in order to be valued. The realm of the feminine and the investigations into nature as described by Ms. Ryan is beautiful, horrifying and disruptive all at the same time.
![[AC]2 History](publishImages/index~~element21.gif){kind=small}
