Turning to Stone

Olivia Quain

A week working with a geologist on the Inner Hebridean Isles of Scotland prompted a newfound interest of mine in rocks. The more I photographed and learned about geological formations, the more I began to see them as sentient; silent observers, natural archives of time and history. Rocks quickly appeared as dynamic as people: each one a different form, originating from a different place, with a different story to tell. As I continued to think about rocks as integral archives of time, I began to wonder about what the human equivalent might be. I started to think about women.

Arguably, rocks are more stereotypically masculine than feminine. They are jagged, irregular and heavy. They take up space, they crumble, they have the potential to be quite destructive. The visual relationship between men and rocks is not new: what is stereotypically angular about the male form is mimicked naturally in geological structures. Women, on the other hand, are often resigned to softer, amorphous ‘living’ elements like water and greenery as a result of their reproductive potential and traditionally rounded forms.

What confronts me about these aesthetic assignments is that they implicitly reinforce the gender binaries which reserve strength for men and passivity for women. In turn, reducing men to stagnant stoics and women to unimposing reproductive entities. By placing women in geological settings, I am suggesting that there is a link between women and stone that runs much deeper than that of women and other earthly elements.

This link can be identified through the history of women’s traditional societal roles: kin-keeping, connecting, communicating, and deescalating. Women are often expected to know a little bit about everyone, to observe, to archive this information for future use. Women are also traditionally expected to stay put, keep quiet, to be generally agreeable. Many of the expectations placed on women are also placed on stone. It sits, it stores, it communicates fundamental historical information- it breaks apart and spreads information as it travels. Its usefulness is identified through its ability to generate/ be repurposed as material. Most importantly, rocks are silent. As a result, the idea that rocks and women have the potential to greatly understand each other doesn’t seem far-fetched.

Turning To Stone (named after the book by Marcia Bjornerud) aims to recontextualize women in natural settings. Offering an alternative visual representation of the woman-earth relationship– one that’s chiseled and angular form is often reserved for masculine representations.

About The Artist

Olivia Quain

Olivia Quain is a Canadian documentary photographer and photo-essayist. She is in her fourth year of photography studies at Toronto Metropolitan University, and is minoring in journalism. Olivia recently completed an exchange program at Edinburgh Napier University, where she furthered her photography studies.

Currently, Olivia is working on a longform photo-essay centering women working in geoscience. She is endlessly interested in the relationships between women and land, and has more recently taken an interest in how geology plays a part in that. Olivia’s work aims to challenge traditional visual cliches between women and earthly elements, positioning women as active agents in the world around them rather than as passive bystanders.

Olivia has spent the last four years learning as much as possible about the intersection between photography and journalism, placing a strong emphasis on fine art and storytelling in her work. She believes fine-art photography and journalism go hand-in-hand when it comes to visual storytelling, and looks forward to the continued pursuit of her career.

She has participated in both solo and group exhibitions in Toronto, and has been recognized for her work by The Women’s Art Association of Canada and Toronto Metropolitan University.

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