ANONYMOUS WOMEN: DOMESTIC DEMISE
Artist: Patty Carol
Reception: Nov 13, 4-6pm
Artist Talk: Nov 13, 4:30pm
Duration: Nov 10- Dec 12, 2025
Location: Turman Gallery (Fine Arts Building)
649 Chestnut Street, Terre Haute, IN 47809
Hours: M-F 11am-4pm, open until 6pm on Thursdays
All exhibitions are free and open to the public. This means family and friends are welcome.:)
About:
Chicago-based photographer Patty Carroll has been creating conceptually rich imagery since the 1970s, delving into the layered themes of femininity, identity, and domestic life. In her compelling exhibition Anonymous Women: Domestic Demise, Carroll pulls back the curtain on the theatrical, often absurd world of the “housewife”—a figure both iconic and invisible. While the traditional mold of this role has shifted in the modern era, its legacy remains tightly woven into the fabric of contemporary culture.
Each of Carroll’s meticulously staged, life-size scenes unfolds in hyper-stylized domestic settings such as kitchens, living rooms, and powder rooms. Each is staged with a lone mannequin as its focal point, ensnared in moments of chaos, collapse, or surrender. The lines between woman and wallpaper dissolve as saturated, monochromatic color schemes engulf the figure, blurring her into the background. This fusion of subject and setting becomes a powerful metaphor for the suffocating weight of domestic expectations and the quiet erasure of identity within the home.
Carroll’s clever sense of humor and flair for the surreal turn the mundane into the absurd, using visual satire to soften the deeper truths. Her work invites us to laugh, cringe, and ultimately reflect on how the ideal of the “housewife” continues to evolve and persist in unexpected ways. Through bold visuals and biting wit, Anonymous Women: Domestic Demise offers both a critique and a deeply empathetic look at the lives lived behind closed doors.