Hunt Residencies X

Post-Residency

Artist Statement

Since I was a little girl, I have always been fascinated by fashion magazines. I remember flipping through their pages at doctor’s offices, grocery stores, and friends’ houses, entranced by their fabrication of the ideal woman. I studied images of supermodels, memorized makeup tips and tricks, and took quizzes on how to find the perfect man. I aspired to be just like the girls in the magazines.  

As a woman now, I know that underneath the glossy cover and perfumed pages was an underlying message of misogyny. Misogyny disguised as images and text dissecting women’s bodies, teaching us self-hatred, and stripping us of our power. My work seeks to expose this misogyny and reparent the little girl inside me. I handpick, slice, and tear the magazine into strips, then reconstruct its body into new forms with wheat paste and glue. It is a healing process that restores agency to women and girls. 

Artist Bio

Sarah Bradlee Townsend is an intersectional feminist artist based in Buffalo, NY. Her artistic practice transforms contemporary women’s fashion magazines into large sculptures and installation works that critique mass media’s representations of women. Sarah views her work as a form of political protest against misogyny and authoritarianism in America.

Statement About My Experience

Hunt Residencies gave me a space to find my community and develop my authentic, creative self. From this experience, I feel more grounded in my identity as an artist and look forward to growing my practice in Buffalo, NY.

Pre-Residency

Artist Statement

I work with photography, collage, and sculpture to empower women and honor intersectional feminism, sustainability, and American democracy. My current process is a socially engaged practice that transforms new and reclaimed fashion magazines donated from public libraries and hair salons—safe spaces of women's empowerment and democracy—into collages and woven sculptures. Abundant with visual and olfactory motifs, these artworks share uplifting stories of women’s historical resiliency and protest against patriarchal ideas and institutions.

Artist Bio

Sarah Bradlee Townsend is an interdisciplinary, feminist artist based in Buffalo, New York. Sarahgraduated from Kenyon College with a B.A. in Studio Art with Distinction in 2020. Her current work is a socially engaged practice that transforms new and reclaimed fashion magazines donated from Buffalo public libraries and hair salons—safe spaces of women's empowerment and democracy—into collages and woven sculptures.