Redressed

Triptych by Sandra Brown, 2010
Acrylic on canvas, sewn

I’m inspired by the ongoing work of women who use humour to educate and poke fun at contentious issues concerning sexist practices in our society. I’ve always had to fight objectification of the female body, the dominance of the male voice and as a young woman I knew the ridicule of being teased and sexualized.

Art history is abundant with paintings of the nude female, presented as an object for the pleasure of the male viewer.  Did objectification of women start with paintings of the nude, moving into pornography? Women artists have long been frustrated by their meagre status in an inequitable art world.  As an emerging artist, I think about the fact that 80% of current art students in North America are female.  What does this mean for the future of art?  If women are virtually going to flood the art world, how will they restore dignity to the female body as the subjects of art?  How will women artists correct the imbalance of power?

The objectifications of women in art, and the exclusion of women’s work from major art museums are some of the issues I seek to redress in this triptych.  So with humour, some traditional feminine tools like scissors and sewing machine, as well as some of the master’s tools (paint and canvas), I literally and figuratively subvert the work of Matisse, Gauguin and Picasso.  I copy their nudes, give the subjects befitting, respectable outfits, and sew the paintings into dresses.  In my own self-indulgent protest, I imagine sneaking into the proverbial patriarchal museum, defacing the work, stripping it from the frame, and with feminine tools, dismember the painting, cut, pin, sew and transform it into something positive and useful to women: a painting/dress that is feminine, dignified, empowering for any objectified nude model, and restorative and humorous for the female viewer.