Faulty Towers employs the metaphor of stacked cakes to interrogate the performative nature of gender expression within a feminist framework. Each cake, carefully constructed and seemingly stable, represents the often contradictory layers of societal gender expectations. The stacked form evokes a sense of verticality—an architectural metaphor for the hierarchical structures that enforce idealized representations of womanhood, power, and beauty. The layered cake, an object of both celebration and consumption, becomes a critique of how femininity is shaped, commodified, and consumed, often reducing it to a surface-level aesthetic devoid of substance.

This series embraces the instability inherent in the stacking process. The cakes, while meticulously built, exist in a constant state of flux, threatening to collapse under their own weight. The frosting, in its pristine beauty, serves as a thin, fragile cover which conceals the instability beneath, emphasizing the tension between the external and internal. This visual dissonance is a direct commentary on how gender identity is structured by external pressures to conform to ideals that are untenable and unsustainable.

The inherent tension of the stacked cakes also mirrors the feminist critique of essentialist views of femininity. The metaphor of the "tower" invokes a critique of patriarchal structures that impose a singular, rigid narrative of womanhood, and deeply disconnected from lived, embodied experience. As these towers threaten to topple or crumble, they speak to the deconstruction of these normative expectations, inviting the viewer to question the performative aspects that mask the complexity of individual identity.  The series embodies both a critique of the external pressures placed upon women and a glimpse of the potential to resist, reconfigure, and reconstruct the layers of identity imposed upon them.