The Covered Body
The issue of the body and sex is not related to an essential thing of the body, but to the way in which sexual difference (the bodies of men and women) are represented. Following examination of the exposed female body in various situations and forms of representation within this exhibition, this room aims to expand dialogue into the issue of the covered body, referring to the bodily gaze as a means of obliterating or enhancing perception of the female form.
The first two paintings are just one example of the development of ideas throughout the 19th to 20th centuries, addressing modes of female representation and gender issues. The excessive drapery typical of Victorian clothing within the painting by Augustus Egg reflects the very conservative ideas of bodily exposure during the era and in generations preceding it. Within Fini’s later reworking of The Travelling Companions the repressed sexuality of the excessively clothed bodies are somewhat revealed, yet Fini also takes her interpretation further by using the resolution of opposites, such as the sleeping / waking dichotomy typical of surrealist painting and the opposites of covered / exposed, to address alternative forms of androgyny.
The significance of clothing within the representation of female form has also been widely explored within feminist film theory, hence the decision to show Josef Von Sternberg’s film ‘The Devil Is A Woman’ (1935). Covering the body in the form of costume, and often in particular with veils, within sexually charged scenes and mixed gender meetings, as opposed to radically exposing it, highlights the attention which must be paid to the manipulation of the gaze and representations of sex through the veiling of the body and the masquerade which surrounds it.
In particular the relation which the covered/ exposed body has to power and threat must also be called into consideration; ‘Women covered or uncovered are still trapped in the contradictions of a law which confines them because the culture of men sees dangers all over their bodies if they escape confinement.’ (Veils Masks and Mirrors, Griselda Pollock, Correct Distance, Cornerhouse,1990)
Within the collection of photographs ‘ Women of Allah’ Shirin Neshat is perhaps raising the question of whether the chador can be used as a weapon to deflect the colonialist gaze ( a gaze which wants to know everything and understands very little). The covered body is hence subject to the notion of a radical denial of the gaze and the concomitant strategy of absence. It can be said that the veil is represented as a power to obliterate the gaze (either a gendered or a cultural one) and as a protecting curtain of the innate power existing beneath it.
The second television monitor within this room would show documentation of the performance ‘In Mourning and in Rage’ created by Suzanne Lacy and Leslie Labowitz in reaction to the female rape victims of Los Angeles in the 70s. The use of veiling within a form of protest inevitably relates to the traditions of mourning and the idea of power existing within, yet has also been used as a uniform ritual enabling the women to come together as a collective statement of unity and aggressive action. The use of veils also enabled the artists to challenge common representations of women as the victim or potential victim within advertising, news and entertainment media, creating a uniform representation of the female form as powerful and somewhat threatening.
Laurie Anderson’s photo narrative installation ‘Fully Automated Nikon’ documents her process of photographing men whom made comments to her in the street. By capturing their image and then obliterating their gaze within the resulting image she is somewhat creating an alternative representation of the covered female. Her work highlights the place that the gaze has within the obliteration or enhancement of representation of the female form, and places an emphasis upon the dominance that the male observer has within ‘visions of sex’.
The issue of the body and sex is not related to an essential thing of the body, but to the way in which sexual difference (the bodies of men and women) are represented. Following examination of the exposed female body in various situations and forms of representation within this exhibition, this room aims to expand dialogue into the issue of the covered body, referring to the bodily gaze as a means of obliterating or enhancing perception of the female form.
The first two paintings are just one example of the development of ideas throughout the 19th to 20th centuries, addressing modes of female representation and gender issues. The excessive drapery typical of Victorian clothing within the painting by Augustus Egg reflects the very conservative ideas of bodily exposure during the era and in generations preceding it. Within Fini’s later reworking of The Travelling Companions the repressed sexuality of the excessively clothed bodies are somewhat revealed, yet Fini also takes her interpretation further by using the resolution of opposites, such as the sleeping / waking dichotomy typical of surrealist painting and the opposites of covered / exposed, to address alternative forms of androgyny.
The significance of clothing within the representation of female form has also been widely explored within feminist film theory, hence the decision to show Josef Von Sternberg’s film ‘The Devil Is A Woman’ (1935). Covering the body in the form of costume, and often in particular with veils, within sexually charged scenes and mixed gender meetings, as opposed to radically exposing it, highlights the attention which must be paid to the manipulation of the gaze and representations of sex through the veiling of the body and the masquerade which surrounds it.
In particular the relation which the covered/ exposed body has to power and threat must also be called into consideration; ‘Women covered or uncovered are still trapped in the contradictions of a law which confines them because the culture of men sees dangers all over their bodies if they escape confinement.’ (Veils Masks and Mirrors, Griselda Pollock, Correct Distance, Cornerhouse,1990)
Within the collection of photographs ‘ Women of Allah’ Shirin Neshat is perhaps raising the question of whether the chador can be used as a weapon to deflect the colonialist gaze ( a gaze which wants to know everything and understands very little). The covered body is hence subject to the notion of a radical denial of the gaze and the concomitant strategy of absence. It can be said that the veil is represented as a power to obliterate the gaze (either a gendered or a cultural one) and as a protecting curtain of the innate power existing beneath it.
The second television monitor within this room would show documentation of the performance ‘In Mourning and in Rage’ created by Suzanne Lacy and Leslie Labowitz in reaction to the female rape victims of Los Angeles in the 70s. The use of veiling within a form of protest inevitably relates to the traditions of mourning and the idea of power existing within, yet has also been used as a uniform ritual enabling the women to come together as a collective statement of unity and aggressive action. The use of veils also enabled the artists to challenge common representations of women as the victim or potential victim within advertising, news and entertainment media, creating a uniform representation of the female form as powerful and somewhat threatening.
Laurie Anderson’s photo narrative installation ‘Fully Automated Nikon’ documents her process of photographing men whom made comments to her in the street. By capturing their image and then obliterating their gaze within the resulting image she is somewhat creating an alternative representation of the covered female. Her work highlights the place that the gaze has within the obliteration or enhancement of representation of the female form, and places an emphasis upon the dominance that the male observer has within ‘visions of sex’.
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