“i am totally sexually submissive.”
“i, after some resistance, will be seduced.”
This piece is about the objectification and sexual exploitation of women in print media as reflective of the sexual evolution of women over time. I chose to create two portraits that appropriate both the style of contemporary American conceptualist artist, Barbara Kruger, and the notions behind the writing of Tamara Garb’s, “The Forbidden Gaze: Women Artists and the Male Nude in Late Nineteenth Century France.” The women in my work are positioned as the subject and we, as the male viewer, project all of our sexual thoughts and desires onto them.
In “The Forbidden Gaze: Women Artists and the Male Nude in Late Nineteenth Century France,” Garb uses the complex character of Isabelle as an embodiment of the disgust she has for the double standard set between women and men. In the 19th century, women artists were not permitted to observe men naked, unlike men who had been examining and depicting women nude since the beginning of time. This so-called ‘forbidden gaze’ was seen as dangerous and threatening akin to the Medusa: just one look could blind and kill you. The distinction between my two images illustrates this division between the purity of men and the purity of women. The images I used signify women’s sexual progression as the mentality and innocence of women has changed; while women’s rights have increased over many centuries, the ability to see men unclothed has become more and more socially acceptable.
Just like Barbara Kruger, I took my images from mainstream magazines that sell the exact ideas I am challenging. The female in the left image is posed in utter submission to the viewer as she opens her blouse willingly and beckons men with her eyes, letting herself go without any resistance. In contrast, the female on the right stares directly and powerfully at the viewer, showing she has come into her own. Yet, she is not turning away from the viewer, indicating she’s still interested. In her work, Kruger combines powerful image and text using black and white photographs with overlaid captions that are declarative and make use of common pronouns like, ‘you,’ ‘I,’ ‘we,’ and, ‘they,’ in order to engage the viewer. Typically, her text uses the colors red and white, which I also employed. Additionally, I created captions that are frank and sarcastic, poking fun at the hidden meanings in advertisements that depict women. Moreover, I borrowed a quote from Garb’s text in the second image, “Isabelle, after some resistance, will be seduced.” Through a combination of the writing of Tamara Garb and the style of Barbara Kruger, I have attempted to show that although female sexuality used to be more hidden, it has now become more public.
the greatest show on earth
This piece is about the inhumane and immoral portrayal of Native Americans in their dioramas at the Museum of Natural History. I chose to create an imitation of a traditional American circus poster but from the perspective of Native Americans putting White American businessmen on exhibit. I incorporated notions and text from Patricia Davison’s article, “Museums and the Reshaping of Memory,” and Melani McAllister’s article, “Epic Encounters: Culture, Media, and U.S. Interests in the Middle East 1945-2000.” The White American viewer experiences the ad in the same way that Native Americans experience the Native American Dioramas in Transition; in both circumstances the respective culture is “stereotyped and oversimplified” discriminatorily (Brown).
I used the absurdity of the circus, as an extreme example of an exhibition of others, to ridicule the unjust portrayal of these indigenous people at the Natural History Museum. In this design, I studied several conventional American circus advertisements and created a fanatical appropriation of the language they use. Additionally, I searched for a font that looked as if it was created by a primitive handmade writing tool. I used an animal skin-parchment-like background and recreated Native American patterns and symbols to make it look more authentic. Moreover, I used a natural color palette that appears as if it were crafted with dyes from plants. These artistic aspects combined make the composition seem as if it were a realistic Native American document.
In “Museums and the Reshaping of Memory,” Davison discusses museums as a mirror of power. Thus, the curators, or those in power, have complete control over the exhibit, which in turn affects the way the viewer experiences the display. In the instance of Native American Dioramas in Transition, the viewer recognizes the Native Americans according to the way the curator, Robert Butsch, chose to depict them, which was according to his own bias. Consequently, these natives are understood as simple creatures, extinct like the dinosaurs that are also on display in the museum. In terms of my poster, the viewer acknowledges the subjected culture, White American businessmen, as “cold & calculating,” greedy entrepreneurs as if the exhibit was created by Native Americans angered by the unfair treatment they typically receive from White Americans.
According to McAllister in “Epic Encounters: Culture, Media, and U.S. Interests in the Middle East 1945-2000,” the government dictated how the exhibition of King Tut was represented and perceived; “In fact, the political and cultural investments in the Tut tour made it far more than a simple bicentennial ‘gift’” (McAllister 127). While in Native American Dioramas in Transition, the White Americans are considered the majority in power and the Native Americans are considered the powerless minority, the roles are reversed in my poster. The Native Americans, more specifically, The Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa & Chippewa Indians, have become the governing majority in authority, exploiting the dehumanized, helpless, White American businessman as a stereotyped and oversimplified representative of the larger culture. Just as the interest in the King Tut exhibit thrived because of, “…a rising media fascination with Middle East terrorism, and the 1973 Arab-Israeli war…” (McAllister 126), this exhibit prospers due to the Native American enthrallment in the White American Colonizers that took over Native American land and treated them intolerably.
Accordingly, the problem of exhibition is that it is impossible for the creator of an exhibition to construct a public display free from his or her judgment. Therefore, the viewer experiences an exhibition, whether it is an exhibit at a natural history museum, a display at an art museum, or even a circus, in terms of the exhibition designer’s bias. Indeed, the viewer experiences this piece according to my predisposition.
