She is best known for her photographic works which explore performativity and complicity in the representation of the female nude. HAPPENSTANCE marks a departure from the well-established photographic work and an introduction to her new practice of abstract painting, a progression Stehli feels was the natural evolution of the physicality of her earlier work. The new work engages the body – its reach, movements and limitations and has a strong link to the performative elements of her practice. The composition and execution of these large paintings are reminiscent of the blurred figures created in earlier photographic work but exude an even more literal and raw expression of herself and the body.
