Embracing Identity: Understanding Womanhood Through Artistic Expression - Belle Vriend

Embracing identity: Understanding Womanhood Through Artistic Expression Belle Vriend (ARC 667)

Embracing identity: Understanding Womanhood Through Artistic Expression

Introduction In this reflection I aim to explore the intersection of my experiences with womanhood and art and how they have helped to shape my creative journey, particularly in my most recent projects. In this reflection I define womanhood as both the state of being a woman and a cultural experience, and I define art as an umbrella term which includes literature, fine art, and architecture.

Beginning with my earlier experiences with womanhood and how I began my understanding through literature I will show how I started critiquing my experiences through fine art. Ultimately, I will explore how I embraced the ideals which resonated with me and how I incorporate them into my work.

This piece delves into the process of internalising and contextualising themes across different periods of my life and illustrates how my understanding of womanhood parallels my artistic expression. I aim for this reflection to prompt readers to reflect on their own experiences and how they influence their work. While I focus on womanhood this can easily be replaced with another cultural experience such as manhood, grief, or socioeconomic status.

Part 1 – Literature and Subjection I was born into the post feminism era where women had ‘achieved equality’, this is what I grew up believing. It wasn’t until I had started my secondary education that I found myself subjected to critiques that were not applied to my male peers. This is when I had started to suspect we had in fact not achieved equality, at least not as I knew it.

While I did not yet have the capability or education to understand what objectification theory was, I did not connect my experience to it until later. I had quickly learnt of society’s expectation of women, an object of desire, more of a decorative ornament than a person. (Fredrickson & Roberts, 1997.)

During this time my love for literature grew and it offered me an escape from the expectations I had started to mould myself into. However, it was not the perfect safe heaven as it too, critiqued me and the work I enjoyed.

As I delved deeper, I encountered a poem which epitomised the social expectations I was being taught. ‘My last duchess’ by Robert Browning (Appendix) shows the story of a woman stripped of her consent. She is literally turned into a piece art to be stared at and controlled by the same man who had her killed.

The essence of this poem is one which I saw reflected in literature. How the theme of women’s consent and agency are rarely considered in esteemed literature, instead they often contain graphic scenes of sexual assault or rape (Game of Thrones, 1996. or For Whom the Bell Tolls, 1940.) Many highly regarded books often lack a woman with agency and seldom pass the Bechdel or the ‘sexy lamp test’ (Yehl, 2013.) (The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, 2005.)

Opposing this are stories from what is usually deemed women’s literature. For example, the genre of romance, which typically centres consenting women, however it has a history of being seen as frivolous entertainment before being considered literature. This affected how I understood womanhood and my own agency. I became desensitised to violence against women because even 1

Embracing identity: Understanding Womanhood Through Artistic Expression

these moments of a women’s life were a spectacle, for the entertainment of others. Women’s pain was a means to an end, a tool to show how dark and serous a writer could be.

It was through literature that I started to contextualise and recognise injustices against women, and I began to voice my concerns but only on matters which seemed beyond individual control.

This allowed the issue to seem further away, less likely to affect me but also afforded me the protection of maintaining a desired demeanour. At the time it seemed as though worse than being an object, was being the object, no one wanted to gaze upon.

Part 2 – Fine Art and Exploration During my time of transitioning from consuming art to creating it, I was dealt the unfortunate opportunity of the pandemic. As my other studies began to take the backseat, I found myself homing in on my fine art course with the time to explore it both academically and personally. My focus turned to narratives particularly those that affected the stories of women. I started centring women in my work and began to discover patterns in fine art alongside my own. It was then when I realised myself to be both a creator and a subject.

The most prevalent pattern was the portrayal of women as decoration which is best understood through the comparison of men in art, particularly in reference to nude art. Male nudes are

Figure 2 - The Statue of David

Figure 1 - The Creation of Adam

Figure 3 - Blue Nude II

Figure 4 - Two Reclining Nudes on Rug

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Embracing identity: Understanding Womanhood Through Artistic Expression

typically in a biblical or mythological context, a moment of importance to be remembered. (shown in fig.1 & 2) Whereas nudes which depict women’s bodies often do so to depict the figure (shown fig. 3 & 4). A keynote to apply to both depictions are the creators, all of which are men. This typically leaves female nudes as decorative ornaments of someone else’s depiction.

Figure 5 - Mother and Child

Figure 6 - Untitled String Work

I used art to explore and critique the womanhood I felt I was faced with, something that was not quite my own, as though everything I did was to be a performance for someone else. Part of this exploration was through various media including embroidery (For example figure 5); an art form which unlike many others, has historically been female dominated. It led me to String Art (Shown in fig. 6) and gave me a chance to connect with femininity that was not focused on the body but the feeling.

Part 3 - Architecture and Acceptance By critiquing and understanding the role womanhood played in my life I was able to make it my own. As I transitioned my art form to architecture, I began to lean into my femininity. I learnt to mould my own version of womanhood as I expanded my knowledge of art, finding other women who had taken control of the narratives that surrounded them (Louisa May Alcott, Barbara Hepworth, Jeanne Gang.) Instead of scrutinizing all that I felt womanhood pushed onto me, I began to take all that it could offer me and weaved it into my creative process, feeding it intentionally into my work.

Women’s art is often categorised under ‘feminist’. It acts to separate their work much like with female literature. I often found that this occurs even when the artists themselves have not made their political views clear. I feel fortunate that this has not been the case for myself in the past few years studying architecture. I believe this to be in part due to the liberal leaning arts environment of the university where most of the cohort is female. My work seems to have been judged on its 3

Embracing identity: Understanding Womanhood Through Artistic Expression

merits rather than by my identity. This separation between creator and creations has allowed me the freedom to play with femininity on my own terms where I am now able to incorporate it in my work.

I have been inspired by many female artists, in my most recent project I have particularly focused on Barbara Hepworth. She has been a key point of refence while creating a school of sculpture and weaving my femininity into the project with her soft but powerful work. This project embodies my acceptance of womanhood, drawing from its essence to inform the overarching design. I wanted the project to not only house art but be art. I find it fitting that Hepworth was one of the first female artist I was introduced to and now I end this journey alongside her once more.

Figure 7 - Clay Model

Figure 8 - Current Project

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Embracing identity: Understanding Womanhood Through Artistic Expression

List of Figures Figure 1: The Creation of Adam Di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni, M. (1508 – 1512) The Creation of Adam [Fresco]. Sistine chapel, Vatican city.

Figure 2: The Statue of David Di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni, M. (1501 - 1504) David [Marble sculpture]. Accademia Gallery, Florence.

Figure 3: Blue Nude II Matisse, H. (1952) Blue Nude II [Gouache on paper, cut and pasted, on white paper, mounted on canvas].

MOMA, New York.

Figure 4: Two Reclining Nudes on Rug Pearlstein, P. (1972) Two Reclining Nudes on Rug [Lithograph]. MOMA, New York.

Figure 5: mother and child Maue, J. (2018) Mother and Child [hand embroidery on found linen]. available from https://www. joettamaue.com/ [Accessed 5 May 2024] Figure 6: Untitled String Work Vriend, A. (2020) Untitled String Work [String around nails on wood]. In possession of: the author.

Figure 7: Clay Model Vriend, A. (2023) Clay Model [Clay]. In possession of: the author.

Figure 8: Current project Vriend, A. (2024) Architectural model [3D printed]. In possession of: the author.

Bibliography Fredrickson, B. & Roberts, T. (1997). Objectification Theory: Toward Understanding Women’s Lived Experiences and Mental Health Risks. Vol. 21 No.2.

Yehl, J. (2013). Kelly Sue DeConnick talks Captain Marvel, Pretty Deadly, and the Sexy Lamp Test [online].

Available from: https://www.ign.com/articles/2013/06/20/kelly-sue-deconnick-talks-captain-marvelpretty-deadly-and-the-sexy-lamp-test [Accessed 15 May 2024].

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Embracing identity: Understanding Womanhood Through Artistic Expression

Appendix: ‘My Last Duchess’ by Robert Browning That’s my last Duchess painted on the wall, Looking as if she were alive. I call That piece a wonder, now: Frà Pandolf ’s hands Worked busily a day, and there she stands.

Will ‘t please you sit and look at her? I said ‘Frà Pandolf ’ by design, for never read Strangers like you that pictured countenance, The depth and passion of its earnest glance, But to myself they turned (since none puts by The curtain I have drawn for you, but I) And seemed as they would ask me, if they durst, How such a glance came there; so, not the first Are you to turn and ask thus. Sir, ‘t was not Her husband’s presence only, called that spot Of joy into the Duchess’ cheek: perhaps Frà Pandolf chanced to say, ‘Her mantle laps Over my lady’s wrist too much,’ or ‘Paint Must never hope to reproduce the faint Half-flush that dies along her throat:’ such stuff Was courtesy, she thought, and cause enough For calling up that spot of joy. She had A heart -- how shall I say? -- too soon made glad, Too easily impressed; she liked whate’er She looked on, and her looks went everywhere.

Sir, ‘t was all one! My favour at her breast, The dropping of the daylight in the West, The bough of cherries some officious fool Broke in the orchard for her, the white mule She rode with round the terrace -- all and each Would draw from her alike the approving speech, Or blush, at least. She thanked men, -- good! but thanked Somehow -- I know not how -- as if she ranked My gift of a nine-hundred-years-old name With anybody’s gift. Who’d stoop to blame This sort of trifling? Even had you skill In speech -- (which I have not) -- to make your will Quite clear to such an one, and say, ‘Just this Or that in you disgusts me; here you miss, Or there exceed the mark’ -- and if she let Herself be lessoned so, nor plainly set Her wits to yours, forsooth, and made excuse, -- E’en then would be some stooping; and I choose Never to stoop. Oh, sir, she smiled, no doubt, Whene’er I passed her; but who passed without Much the same smile? This grew; I gave commands; Then all smiles stopped together. There she stands As if alive. Will ‘t please you rise? We’ll meet The company below then. I repeat, 2 The Count your master’s known munificence Is ample warrant that no just pretence Of mine for dowry will be disallowed; Though his fair daughter’s self, as I avowed At starting, is my object. Nay, we’ll go Together down, sir. Notice Neptune, though, Taming a sea -horse, thought a rarity, Which Claus of Innsbruck cast in bronze for me!

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