This project reinterprets the traditional role of stained glass, historically linked to Christian iconography and its reinforcement of patriarchal values. By depicting female bodybuilders figures in this medium, the work aims to challenge outdated notions that link femininity with passivity and delicacy. This paradox of strength and fragility is central: these bodies, powerful yet vulnerable, defy simplistic binaries, by rather revealing a more complex reality of the human condition. Through this juxtaposition, the project subverts the conventional symbolism of stained glass, elevating these figures to a level of reverence that questions not only the sacredness, but also the patriarchal norms imposed by Western society.
Traditionally found in the Gothic windows of the church, stained glass have long being use to symbolize divine light by filtering its sacred images into the gloom of its interiors, but also functioned as emblems of power and prestige. At a time when many of the faithful were illiterate, these visual narratives became powerful tools for transmitting their moral values, imposing control and submission under the cloak of faith. Thus, stained glass windows not only illuminated temples, but also projected the influence of an institution that, in its zeal to maintain order, contributed, among other things, to the oppression of the spectrum of female identity: the ultimate expression of this oppression is found in the polarized depictions of Eve and the Virgin Mary, for instance.
In this project, through a look at the world of female bodybuilding, I am interested in highlighting the absurd contradiction of certain patriarchal ideals. A hyper-muscled female body radically distances itself from the archaic ideals of a society that still exalts passivity and delicacy as feminine virtues. This results in an obvious paradox: although these bodies project an imposing image of physical power, that very strength exposes them to vulnerability, as they in turn become frequent targets of discrimination, rejection and abuse.

That said, my piece is also physically fragile, as the very material that gives form to strong, muscular bodies is, in fact, delicate glass. And so I reappropriate the paradox: although strength and fragility seem incompatible opposites, they coexist in the body and offer us a more complex and nuanced vision of reality, as it allows us to understand that bodies are rather an undefined and dynamic mixture of opposites.