The Naming: Veronica

Nicole Rose Gelormino

Verónica

2020

oil on canvas

48 x 36”

Leaning back from a sitting position, a headless female figure is composed of a mossy, wrinkled neck, blistering beads, fragmented human flesh, an ant larvae and a porpoise tail. On an obsidian, prismatic pedestal, her presence glows against a hot pink background. In my experience, pregnancy is both deeply intimate—developing a relationship with a young human from the inside of my body—and simultaneously unavoidably performative—at a certain point the evidence is public for everyone to see. The new flavor of objectification I experienced as a pregnant woman alongside my personal, euphoric experience of pregnancy inspired Verónica.