rika maya duevel

“Be True To Yourself”',  2021

Mixed media on canvas

The work responds to a question many women know all too well: “When are you having children?” Posed with the ease of casual conversation, it often carries the weight of expectation, revealing how deeply reproductive norms are embedded in everyday interactions. Beneath its apparent simplicity lies a more intimate terrain of vulnerability, pressure, and personal choice.

“As an introvert, I have been asked this question more times than I can count, and it has always made me uncomfortable. This work is my visual response, a way of reclaiming space and giving form to the complex emotions such a question can provoke.”

Golden symbols appear throughout the piece [Norse runes associated with fertility] drawing on an ancient visual language of power and continuity, while subtly challenging the assumptions historically placed upon women’s bodies.