Laura Stephens
Alstonville High School
IMMACULATE SUFFERING
Drawing
Graphite pencil on paper
My body of work is a critique of Christianity's justification, exacerbation and deification of female suffering. Women are sinful only in our likeness to God; the knowledge Eve's apple bestowed, our divine creative ability. Our immorality is understood in the femaleness of original sin; our inherent fallenness. My work represents the ethereal Madonna and Child as the Christian epitome of feminine morality - the paradoxically virgin mother. Portraits of Our Lady of Sorrows gazing towards the Madonna convey the desire to meet unattainable moral expectations and the subsequent guilt of perceived inadequacy. God appropriates femininity before damning us for it.
My artmaking practice has been influenced by the study and interpretation of the following artists: Ludovico Pogliaghi, central door of Duomo di Milano; Michelangelo, La Pieta; Kris Kuksi, Adoration of the Magi.
Marker's Commentary
Immaculate Suffering explores the complex relationship between purity and pain, suggesting that suffering can possess an undeniable, almost sacred quality. Conceptually, the work challenges viewers to consider how religious iconography often represents sacrifice and suffering as part of the human condition, and in this body of work, specifically from a female perspective. The title itself combines contradictory ideas, “immaculate” meaning pure or flawless, and “suffering” representing distress or pain, inviting a reflection on the coexistence of beauty and struggle.
In terms of material practice, the drawings have been generated with careful, deliberate use of mark-making to convey this tension and beauty. The artist has used contrasting lines, textures, and dramatic chiaroscuro to create a visual dialogue between softness and sharpness, light and dark. The tactile qualities of the drawing materials emphasise the rawness of emotion and the fragile nature of purity amid suffering. The audience is invited into the private space of religious contemplation in an almost intrusive manner. The carefully considered compositions and viewpoints throughout the work invites close observation, encouraging viewers to engage both intellectually and emotionally with the figures presented. Immaculate Suffering is a powerful exploration of emotional complexity, made tangible through thoughtful and highly refined drawing techniques that express intangible concepts.