| dominique elkind |
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statement
I have
focused the direction of my work on pen and ink drawings on paper that
depict women and animals in various states of eroticism and exoticism.
I am exploring my own complicated and ambivalent relationship to images
that at first may seem exploitative and pornographic. In actuality,
as a female artist, I am exploring my own seduction and repulsion towards
these types of feminine archetypes. I am interested in desires that
one has but still recognizes as wrong or may want to repress. The women
I choose to draw are stereotypically sexually attractive. I recognize
this and despite my awareness that I still like it. I hope to emphasis
the fact that my girls are having their own fantasies; they are acting
them out for themselves and not for the traditional male gaze that is
present in art historical female nudes and in contemporary pornography.
I want
to reverse fantasies put onto women and create ownership by the very
subjects that they try to oppress, thus subverting the very gaze inflicted
on them in the first place. I do this with an obsessive use of patterning
from a traditionally domestic context and closing the eyes of the girls
to show that it is their own voluntary submission in their own fantasies
and that they are not being victimized. The pattering creates a sense
of ownership of the girls inhabited space as it becomes their decorated
realm. The women in my drawings become powerful in that they are the
ones in control of their fantasies that occur by the use of their own
props; such as animals, lingerie, and bedding. I like the idea of the
crazy, exotic and silly costumes of the girls in the drawings along
with their feline cohorts acting as a foil for the girls; they embody
the dumb oblivious characters while the girl’s dignity remains.
I am putting my girls into domestic settings and costumes
that emphasize the sweet, cute, and frilly to infantilize their sexuality
and take the functionality out of it as well. Some of the girls are
actually morphing into caricatures of babies and losing their adult
bodies altogether. Their densely patterned confines act as a foil for
their anxiety over a descent into womanhood and loss of control with
an overcompensation of decoration that collapses into chaos onto itself.
This entails the believable perspective of the drawings luring the viewer
in while the flatness of patterned space can block penetration into
their domain.
Taking the functionality out of the girls sex organs
and turning them into decorative elements reflects my own rejection
of societal implications that womanhood requires breeding. Pornography
turns girls into desirable objects to fuck, the impenetrability of my
patterned clothing and interior spaces make the girls unfuckable. The
girls in my drawings are choosing to be flirty and childish with the
awareness of the power that comes from it. It can be powerful to be
desired and looked at. Their power is in reserve, as they can choose
to be helpless but also have the availability to exert control. By juvenilizing
the girls they can avoid the consequences and gender roles of real grownup
sexuality.
In this regard, I believe my work’s relative place
in the history of contemporary art would a contemporary feminist twist
on the historical American pin-up girl. I am creating work to continue
the dialogue begun by third wave feminists and address own our desires
as women and what it means to be a sexually attractive female in our
own fantasies. I would say my work relates to contemporary artists like
Lisa Yuksavage, Orly Cogan, Amy Cutler, and Rosson Crow who are exploring
similar themes of power, gender, and fantasy.
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