01 Put Me on Your Pedestal
You Can Decorate the Space with My Presence
“Riley uses complex composition and the allure of the female body to draw the viewer into her performance.
Calling upon a vast history of female worship imagery – religious, erotic, and otherwise – she arranges herself into a new idol. Here, within this intentional celebration of her own eroticism, she breathes life into the hollow projections leftover by the men who consume her. In allowing herself to confess to discomfort, she brings forth a new being, one to assume both the ecstasy and distress that Riley contains.
In contemplation with the idol, Riley questions whether the joyful pursuit of sexual liberation can ever be detangled from the internalization of her worth as a sexual object.”
“Post-opening, after the gallery requested a curtain to shield the public from her perceived indecency, the idol gained a new mystique – magnifying the erotic nature of her being. In the days following installation, Riley reflects upon the persistent, triangulated relationship between empowerment, objectification, and shame.”