“Io sono la porta” senior thesis exhibition at the American University of Rome, Rome, ITA. December 2025.
“Io sono la porta” is an exploration of inherent and contradictory gender-based philosophies present within institutional systems of faith. Composed of entirely personal, internationally collected ephemera and second-hand material gifted by female friends and family members, the installation follows a singular thread which appears to connect women across the globe. Inspired by a collaborative piece between students and professors at the American University of Greece, McRae examines the narrative power of objects and icons as repositories of memory and history within her own work. (1)
Drawing from Susan Sontag’s collection of recently published essays “On Women (2023),” McRae directly confronts an omnipresent, “cosmic suffering” reserved for women beneath patriarchal and colonial-rule. Here, she transforms a former kitchen of the Barnabite Seminary, once maintained by nuns, into a Paleo-Christian space of worship. (2) Through unsettling the logic of time and the seemingly impermeable traditions of the Western world, she highlights feelings such as: the fear and stress of containment; the limitations of beauty; and the desire to spiritually transcend prescribed gender roles.
(1) Ana Sol Gonzales Rueda, Cristos Asomatos, Ioanna Papapavlou, “A Link and a Break in Time,” The American College of Greece, May 23 – June 28, 2025.
(2) Susan Sontag, “The Double Standard of Aging,” On Women, ed. David Rieff, Penguin Books, 2023, 17.
Photos by Maria Pichyienko (12/25), the American University of Rome, Rome, ITA.
(1) Amelia McRae, “Cycle A,” 29 x 24 cm, Thai paper stained with beet juice, menstrual blood, vinegar, coffee and tea; rabbit-skin-glued onto India paper, October 2025, Rome, Italy; (2) Amelia McRae, “Baby Blanket,” 138 x 60cm, discarded journal pages and post-it-notes, dyed with rainwater and earl-grey tea, rabbit-skin-glued and sewn onto old canvas, June 2025, Rome, Italy.
“Dio sia benedetto” is a reflection on the male gaze and what it means to be perceived through the lens of gender, explored through subversive role-play. The film is divided into two parts: the second half focuses on the receptive component to His ruling judgement, in which feelings of being surveyed and vulnerability are indicated by what appears to be the aftermath of some form of repeated spiritual and/or physical flagellation.” Amelia McRae, “Dio Sia Benedetto,” 00.04.47,” VIVITAR 4k HD, ed. November 2025, Rome, Italy. Filmed in April 2025, Athens, Greece.
“Tutto misto,” at L’Ambasciata degli Stati Uniti in Italia, Rome, ITA. July 2025.
As an American citizen with Italian heritage, McRae’s artwork simultaneously reflect an interest in exploring the differences and similarities between the identities of these countries and the historical events which have shaped them. “Tutto Misto” explores the tension between inherited realities and future nostalgia, and how states of political purgatory and civil unrest manifest in the mind and body of the average compatriot. Her series of illustrations and multi-media artworks collectively interrogate the historical parallels which have acted as precedent to major world wars. McRae places a particular importance on both figurative and mechanical motifs, which are consistently depicted as being interchangeable with one another.
amelia mcrae 