Carly Whitmore

The great symbol of Western “high art” has always been the nude, with its soft lines and qualities of flesh demonstrating the exquisite skill of the painter. The female nude however is represented as an idealized body playing predominantly on the “active artist/passive model” dichotomy. This work was created out of the need to visually find a female language and a feminine space. The idea that women need the manipulating hand of a man to attain some state of grace is the historical regulation that my work subverts and critiques. I take control of my body within an artistic setting, removing the power of the male hand to contextualize the body as an artwork by doing so myself. By playing both the role of the artist and the model, I am empowering myself while at the same time criticizing those who have controlled the female body in the past. These actions highlight the historical role of the female nude within the male dominated cannon of art as a commodity of patriarchal culture, something to be studied, observed and misrepresented.