Dissertation:
In my dissertation I looked at how female artist have explored in depth the representation of women throughout history through their art work and what I have come to realise is that I am documenting my own history with my artwork. However I want to show other females my emotions and feeling towards the issues I address in my art work, and hoping that they also relate to them in some way.
I discussed the theory of the male gaze and how woman are perceived, in my artwork now I am still working with this idea, as in my own work I am using myself and my own face ( like Cindy Sherman did). In this case oh I am working with the idea of the male gaze not actually how the male gaze makes the image be perceived as. Where in my work I have thought about the male gaze and applied this concept to my work as I feel that the male gaze control how I feel about producing the images I have. I said before I felt uncomfortable about looking at the images of my face, is this because I don’t think they are pleasing to the eye? The eye of the male gazing upon them, do I think that a male looking at these images of my face would be unpleasing? I think I apply the male gaze to my work as a concept almost as if I am the male being critical over myself and my own looks. I think that is why in my work I want to look at myself. I am self-reflecting, which one of me is the male gaze looking at the image and which one is the image looking back at the male gazing at them?
I looked at Manet “Olympia” In my dissertation and the power she had over her male viewers with her glaring eyes looking straight back at them, as if she had caught them out and she has catches them looking at her. She holds the power over her audience.
As Lacan once said that “we are beings who are looked at, in the spectacle of the world” and John Berger (1972) stated that “according to usage and conventions which are at last being questioned but have by no means been overcome – men act and women appear. Men look at women. Women watch themselves being looked at.” Also in Renaissance images of nude women were painted almost exclusively for the male viewer. Women are often painted with their bodies turned towards the viewer while their heads are turned away as they gaze at themselves in the mirror. The woman is aware of being the object of the male gaze (Berger, 1972). I am being the woman who is watching myself and almost judging myself. I am being the one that looks in the mirror while others look on at me. I want my video piece to play so that I am watching myself apply and remove my makeup (my mask and comfort blanket).
I will use myself as an object which is something artist Cindy Sherman done in her piece, she has been a big inspiration through my work. The idea of the pleasure of looking and voyeurism pleasures come from a male audience perspective, this is something that Cindy Sherman captures in her film still pieces. This is what I want to create from my work the pleasure of looking but this is different as it is pleasing to myself not the audience as such, voyeuristic is described as..
“Voyeuristic when it is dependent on the object of the gaze being unaware. Someone spying on another is popularly known as a ‘peeping tom’. To some extent both photograph and film invite voyeuristic looking. It is the act of viewing the activities of others unbeknown to them. Therefore the act of looking can be seen as illicit or as having forbidden connotations, in cinemas we are voyeurs, watching people on screen who are ‘ignorant’ that we are watching them. We desire pleasure from this. The camera is also a voyeur.” (Etherington-Wright,2011)
