DEAD GIRLS was a solo exhibition of paintings by Jordan Sears.

From the fandom that surrounds the deaths of female celebrities such as Marilyn Monroe, to shows like Twin Peaks or Pretty Little Liars, whose storyline is about solving the “Dead Girl” murder mystery, America has undeniably romanticized and fetishized the “Dead Girl.”

Increasingly curious about America’s taboo relationship with death, this exhibition will explore its oddly permitted, unyielding obsession with dead women.

Alice Bolin in her 2018 book of essays titled Dead Girls, that inspired much of this body of work, states that: “The implication could not be more clear: that women are problems to be solved, and the problem of absence, a disappearance or a murder, is generally easier to deal with than the problem of a woman’s presence.”

In introducing my own grappling with this imagery, I hope to inspire a conversation about holding our entertainment accountable.