Concept:
A series of paintings depicting the "beauty" of the female form. Their inspiration wasn't based in vanity but rather on challenging the demonization of sexuality as a whole and our cultural idea that the exposed female form is inherently sexual. Heavily inspired by Gloria Steinem’s Erotica Vs. Pornography in which she makes the argument that pornography is being used as a tool to promote the sexist ideals where women are subservient to men and that sex is an act of violence and domination, making sexual attraction ownership rather than a partnership. The feminine figure is first the prize to be won then the coveted possession. Since we view sex in this way, women are objectified to the extent where even the sight of the female nude is seen as a deviant act. This is also aided by the modesty morals of our society’s Judeo-Christian roots perpetuating this idea, all as a way to manipulate and regulate women into subservience.
Having a conventionally attractive figure in our patriarchal society, I have always been fetishized and/or ridiculed just for existing in my natural state to the extent that it's all most people know me for, judging me on superficial aspects that are only skin deep, rather than my thoughts or personality. I offer up my own likeness to create a direct confrontation between the artist and viewer, much like in Manet's Olympia.
All of the paintings are based on zodiac signs mainly for color and composition inspiration since every sign has its own color and body part associated with it. The term ‘Venusta’ was popularized in art during the Renaissance, specifically by Raphael. The best example of this is his print, Massacre of the Innocents, which depicted both masculine and feminine "beauty".
“Look at any photo or film of people making love; really making love. Those images may be diverse, but there is usually a mutual pleasure and touch and warmth, an empathy for each other’s bodies and nerve endings, a shared sensuality and a spontaneous sense of two people who are there because they want to be, out of shared pleasure.
Now look at any depiction of sex in which there is clear force, violence, or symbols of unequal power. They may be very blatant: whips and chains of bondage, even torture and murder presented as sexually titillating, the clear evidence of wounds and bruises, or an adult’s power being used sexually over a child. They may be more subtle: the use of class, race, authority, or just body poses to convey conqueror and victim; unequal nudity, with one person’s body exposed and vulnerable while the other is adorned with clothes; But blatant or subtle, there is no equal power or mutuality. In fact, much of the tension and drama comes from the clear idea that one person is dominating another.
These two sorts of images, the first being erotic: a mutually pleasurable, sexual expression, and the second is pornographic: its message is violence, dominance, and conquest. They are as different as love is from rape, as dignity is from humiliation, as partnership is from slavery, as pleasure is from pain. Yet they are confused and lumped together, because sex and violence are so dangerously intertwined and confused. After all, it takes violence or the threat of it to maintain the unearned dominance of any group of human beings over another. Moreover, the threat must be the most persuasive wherever men and women come together intimately and are most in danger of recognizing each’ other’s humanity.
Perhaps one could simply say that erotica is about sexuality, but pornography is about power and sex-as-weapon—In the same way we have come to understand that rape is about violence, and not really about sexuality at all.”
-Gloria Steinem; Erotica Vs. Pornography
