The Sugar Project rigorously examines how the commodification of women is experienced and expressed in our contemporary lives and culture. Artist Michelle de la Vega confronts the legacy of women as property through nuances woven into themes of cultural archetypes, silencing, self-advocacy, the epidemic of gender violence, and the dominance of the “male gaze” that has historically controlled female representation and identity through art and media.

 

The Sugar Project’s aim is to create a collective, open and diverse dialogue in the community though participating artists, activists, partner organizations and public groups. There have been many people who have touched this work, creating the rich meaning, thematic complexity, and bold content that the project has come to embody. Over the course of 18 months Ms. de la Vega facilitated public engagement events, ongoing workshops, and collaborative initiatives, bringing community voices directly into the creative process of the project.

 

Sugar is used as a metaphor for women as sweet commodities that exist to be consumed, and as a symbol for the messages women and girls receive from a very early age that their highest value in society is to be sweet, pleasing, pretty, seductive, sacrificial and as expendable as possible, leading to the disownment of self-advocacy, physical and psychological health, and subversion of the full, extravagant expression of their beings. The project was a dual exhibition at Oxbow and and an immersive film installation at Bridge Productions. To view the Sugar Project films please go to the film tab on this site. 

 

Partner organizations of The Sugar Project include La Sala, The Organization for Prostitution Survivors, Seattle University, Seattle’s Union Gospel Mission Hope Place Women’s Shelter, Seattle Amistad School, Horn of Africa Youth Services, Bella Materna, Bellwether Biennial, and ArtXchange.

 

The Sugar Project is funded in part by a Neighborhood Matching Fund Award from Seattle Department of Neighborhoods, and has also gratefully received generous support from a consortium of private donors, Equinox Studios, Bootstrapper Studios, and a generative artist residency with the Institute of Emergent Technology + Intermedia (iET+I) at Cornish College of the Arts.

 

PROJECT PRESS: City Arts Magazine 2017 Artist of the Year, The StrangerCity Arts Title Page, Saccharine and Sexism: Critical Review in City Arts Magazine, Out of Sight Seattle: Evidence Cake

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Special Thanks:

Sharon Arnold

Hannah Leonardo

Martha Linehan

Victoria Raymond

Anne Diamond

Sam Ferrazaino

Jeff Ludwig

Private Donors

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