Art is like a weapon. It’s visually appealing creativity acts as a powerful form of ideological ammunition for discussing the pressing issues that society faces today. A simple image has the ability to embody people’s feelings and thoughts through not only aesthetic admiration but most importantly, to provoke deep questioning of our social and political landscape. The Feminist art movement that emerged in the late 1960s paved way for women to create liberating and inspiring messages to encourage change towards equality. Feminist art aimed to strived to change the world around them as used their art to influence societal attitudes and transform stereotypes. While the movement worked to act as catalysts for change, there are three artists who
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Female bodies presented in the media, magazines and the internet, tend to be sexualized and more exposed to the public eye. Hannah Wilke, who is known as a feminist artist, used mediums like photography and performance art to challenge perceptions of femininity and sexuality. Most of her artworks are revealed with her nude body to represent social and political themes. In the early 1970s, Wilkes best known work was the S.O.S Starification Object Series, which was a collection of self-portraits “in which she both parodies and dismantles stereotypical representations of femininity” (Wacks, “Jewish Women’s Archive”). As Wilke poses half-naked for the stills in which she adopts the attitudes of female celebrities with her vulva shaped chewing gum covered torso facing the viewer. In this case, the chewing gum symbolizes scars and most importantly, “calling attention to the objectification of women’s bodies” (Guggenheim Collection Online). Ultimately, these photographs point out that in our popular culture, women’s bodies become a pleasure for male gaze, and through her work, she effectively disrupts those pleasures; presenting herself as a damaged woman destroyed by a culture “that subordinates woman to man” (Frueh, 19). After all, female artists like Wilke, expressed their ideas through personal experience and formulated “innovative representational strategies to challenge phallocentrism and the male gaze, illuminate female sexuality and eroticism” (Brodsky & Olin,
Female bodies presented in the media, magazines and the internet, tend to be sexualized and more exposed to the public eye. Hannah Wilke, who is known as a feminist artist, used mediums like photography and performance art to challenge perceptions of femininity and sexuality. Most of her artworks are revealed with her nude body to represent social and political themes. In the early 1970s, Wilkes best known work was the S.O.S Starification Object Series, which was a collection of self-portraits “in which she both parodies and dismantles stereotypical representations of femininity” (Wacks, “Jewish Women’s Archive”). As Wilke poses half-naked for the stills in which she adopts the attitudes of female celebrities with her vulva shaped chewing gum covered torso facing the viewer. In this case, the chewing gum symbolizes scars and most importantly, “calling attention to the objectification of women’s bodies” (Guggenheim Collection Online). Ultimately, these photographs point out that in our popular culture, women’s bodies become a pleasure for male gaze, and through her work, she effectively disrupts those pleasures; presenting herself as a damaged woman destroyed by a culture “that subordinates woman to man” (Frueh, 19). After all, female artists like Wilke, expressed their ideas through personal experience and formulated “innovative representational strategies to challenge phallocentrism and the male gaze, illuminate female sexuality and eroticism” (Brodsky & Olin,