The Female Gaze by Jill Soloway

The Male Gaze

The male gaze is the way in which visual arts and literature depict to the world and women from a masculine point of view presenting women as objects of male pleasure.

The Female Gaze

If taken literally, it would mean visual arts and literature depicting the world and men from a feminine point of view, presenting men as objects of female pleasure. Another way people might interpret the Female Gaze would be to reverse the gender of the male protagonist, the placing of the women into male roles.

Female Gaze is a way of “feeling seeing”. It could be thought of as a subjective camera that attempts to get inside the protagonist, especially when the protagonist is not a Cis male. It uses the frame to share and evoke a feeling of being in feeling rather than seeing – the characters. For example, in a film making, the cameraman’s body is in feeling, not capturing but playing an action. The audience ‘feel’ more.

Female gaze is also using the camera to take on the very nuanced, occasionally impossible task of showing us how it feels to be the object of the Gaze. The camera talks out at you from its position as the receiver of the gaze. This piece of the triangle represents the Gazed gaze. This is how it feels to be seen. The audiences will experience to feel specifically how she (the object of the gaze) become as she become what men see. It’s about what she is doing by being seen – her effect.

This definition of female gaze involves the way the female gaze dares to return the gaze. It is the gaze on the gazers. It’s about how it feels to stand here in the world having been seen our entire lives. This part of the female gaze is a sociopolitical justice-demanding way of art making.

The Female Gaze is not a camera trick. It is a privilege generator that positions ‘me’, the woman, as the Subject.

Postmodernism

What is a postmodernism?

It is a period after modernism, starting from 1970s. Postmodernism can be seen as a reaction against the ideas and values of modernism, as well as a description of the period that followed modernism's dominance in cultural theory and practice in the early and middle decades of the twentieth century. The term is associated with scepticism, irony and philosophical critiques of the concepts of universal truths and objective reality.

The term was first used around 1970. As an art movement postmodernism to some extent defies definition – as there is no one postmodern style or theory on which it is hinged. It embraces many different approaches to art making, and may be said to begin with pop art in the 1960s and to embrace much of what followed including conceptual art, neo-expressionism,feminist art, and theYoung British Artists of the 1990s.

Postmodern vs Modern

Postmodernism was a reaction against modernism. Modernism was generally based on idealism and a Utopian vision of human life and society and a belief in progress. It assumed that certain ultimate universal principles or truths such as those formulated by religion or science could be used to understand or explain reality. Modernist artists experimented with form, technique and processes rather than focusing on subjects, believing they could find a way of purely reflecting the modern world.

While modernism was based on idealism and reason, postmodernism was born of skepticism and a suspicion of reason. It challenged the notion that there are universal certainties or truths. Postmodern art drew on philosophy of the mid to late twentieth century, and advocated that individual experience and interpretation of our experience was more concrete than abstract principles. While the modernists championed clarity and simplicity; postmodernism embraced complex and often contradictory layers of meaning.

The Many Faces of Postmodernism

Anti-authoritarian by nature, postmodernism refused to recognize the authority of any single style or definition of what art should be. It collapsed the distinction between high culture and mass or popular culture, between art and everyday life. Because postmodernism broke the established rules about style, it introduced a new era of freedom and a sense that ‘anything goes’. Often funny, tongue-in-cheek or ludicrous; it can be confrontational and controversial, challenging the boundaries of taste; but most crucially, it reflects a self-awareness of style itself. Often mixing different artistic and popular styles and media, postmodernist art can also consciously and self-consciously borrow from or ironically comment on a range of styles from the past.

Jacques Lacan

Jacques Lacan (1901–1981), was a prominent French psychoanalyst and theorist. His ideas had a huge impact on critical theory in the twentieth century and were particularly influential on post-structuralist philosophy and the development of postmodernism. Lacan re-examined the psychiatry of Sigmund Freud, giving it a contemporary intellectual significance. He questioned the conventional boundaries between the rational and irrational by suggesting that the unconscious rather than being primitive, is just as complex and sophisticated in its structure as the conscious. He proposed that the unconscious is structured like a language which allows a discourse between the unconscious and conscious and ensures that the unconscious plays a role in our experience of the world.

Postmodernism Artworks

Roy Lichtenstein - Whaam! 1963

Pop artists broke down the separation between fine art and popular culture in their work: Lichtenstein borrows the language of comics for his painting Whaam.

Guerrilla Girls - Do Women Have To Be Naked To Get Into The Met. Museum? 1989

In the 1970s women artists began to make art in response to the developments in feminist theory. They used their personal experiences of being women to inform their work.

Sandro Chia - Water Bearer 1981

Neo-expressionism saw painters returning to mythical and historical subjects (in reaction to the negation of the subject by modernist painters). It was anti-intellectual and individualistic and referenced earlier painting styles.

Gilbert & George - Gordon's Makes Us Drunk 1972

Performance allowed artists to create work that eliminated the need for process and technique and also offered a way of making art more accessible to the masses. In this performance Gilbert & George’s deadpan expressions and repeated declaration that 'Gordon's makes us very drunk' creates an absurd scene that ironically questions identity, nationality and 'good behavior'.

Joseph Kosuth - Clock (One and Five), English/Latin Version (Exhibition Version)1965, 1977

Conceptual artists reacted against the modernist emphasis on the importance of the art object. Instead they emphasized the idea or concept behind the work. In doing so they championed the postmodern approach of interpretation and experience over universal truths.

Damien Hirst - Away From The Flock 1994

The YBAs stormed the art world in the 1980s and became known for their openness to materials and processes, shock tactics and entrepreneurial approach. In true postmodern spirit, no one style is evident in their work, though certain shared approaches can be seen such as the use of appropriated objects and images.

Jeff Koons - New Hoover Convertibles, Green, Red, Brown, New Shelton Wet/Dry 10 Gallon Displaced Doubledecker

1981–7

In 1980 Koons exhibited a series of sculptures comprising of wall-mounted vacuum cleaners displayed in Plexiglas cases. Over the 7 years the artist produced several more configurations, using ready-made objects in the creation of highly conceptual artworks. Referred to broadly as ‘The New’ these works explored the way our fantasies and desires are transferred on to ordinary objects. Suspended in a state of ultimate perfection, Koons commented "if one of my works was to be turned on, it would be destroyed."

Up-cycle Project

Inspirations

I got an idea for using car tires as my material after seeing the amount of discarded car tires from the repair shop behind my campus. Most people usually burn them and that can cause air pollution. In order to reduce this, I decided to give an idea to recycle them.

Eggshells are waste by products of eggs that produces several tons per day that sent to the landfill with high management cost. I, myself, eat eggs a lot in a week and just throw the shells to the bin. By up-cycling these eggshells I can contribute to the reduction in land waste.

I got an idea to up cycle cans after seeing my mom trying to throw the finished cat food cans.

Aluminium cans takes a long time to degrade. Today, cans that are discarded just pile up in an area and this disturbs the environment.

My family usually does a clean up once a month and I saw these pile of comics that are going to be thrown. The world's number 1 waste is paper. Paper waste fills up the land volume and thus creates land pollution. Up cycling paper is one way to reduce this problem.

Sketches

This is my first sketches of the up-cycle products I wanted to make which are; a table from car tire, a chair from unused clothes, and a carpet from bubble wraps.

After having a QC with the lecturer I decided to make:

- A table from unused clothes

- A desk table from cans and comic book papers

- A pot decorated with cracked egg shells

References

Car Tire Table

Egg Shells Vase

Desk Lamp from Cans

Experiment on Materials

With Comic Paper

I made an attempt to burn the comic paper with a hot gun. The paper got burnt and the color changes to brown.

With Used Clothes - Fabric

The fabric I am experimenting with is the Rayon fabric. Before experimenting on it, my lecturer helped me secure the fabric with a hoop.

For the first experiment, I used a solder to make holes onto the fabric.

I tried burning the fabric with a heat gun for my second experiment on the fabric material. The fabric turned brown as it is burnt.

In the last experiment, I tried sewing the fabrics to make a ribbon.

Combining Fabric and Comic Paper

To combine both materials, the fabric and comic paper, I cut them into smaller rectangle strips and try weaving the materials.

With Cans

For the first experiment, I cut the cans so it would curl like the picture below.

I cut the cans into smaller pieces for the next experiment and use a clear tape to bind them.

With Egg Shells

First, I cracked the egg shells to smaller pieces with my hands and use a mortar after to make it into finer pieces.

Then I tried making a mixture of glue and water to bind the cracked egg shells onto a plastic.

With Colored Egg Shells

In the second experiment for egg shells, I colored the egg shells with acrylic paint to see the difference between the outcome compare to the not colored egg shells.

I did not color the insides of the shells to show the texture of the material.

After drying it about an hour, I cracked it into smaller pieces using my hands and a mortar to make the pieces finer.

Combining Egg Shells and Can Pieces

I got an idea of combining both materials, the cracked egg shells and pieces of cans. It creates a contrast as the cans have a shiny surface.

I also tried applying the sample piece onto the car tire to see how it looks when combined. As the car tire is black, it creates an interesting contrast between the materials.