Since long before the waves of feminism, there has been a power contest in the entanglement women have with the table. The submission enforced upon us juxtaposed with the identity it provided us with. Referred to as housewives, chefs, feeders, maids, carers, mothers, nurturers. The nature of these identities notions to areas women had control. Yet all in service to others. Alluding to a distorted sense of power. The table itself also holds many different uses and roles. In an analysis of the kitchen table, from a range of female led autobiographical sources, Dr Lucy Faire found that there were “24 different uses of the table…[ranging] from eating to more obscure uses such as an operating table to remove tonsils.”
When considering what I was looking to explore with this discussion I found myself consistently drawn back to the table as a site at which art is performed. How power infiltrates the relational link between subject and object. The subject being the body and the object being the table. These ideas consolidated to form the question ‘What does the auto/biographical work of female artists teach us about power play within eating rituals?’ For the sake of this discussion, I have narrowed down my research to encompass second and third wave feminism, looking at artists practicing between 1967-2010. Equally the term ’Auto/Biography’ is used in reference to the British Sociological Associations definition of the forward slash. “Denoting the critical interrelationship between the self and the other, the private and public” (Chappell and Stewart). The table’s private relationship to the female body is publicised through the works of the female artists that will be explored. Moreover, I will heavily explore the self in this discussion. Specifically in relation to othering through gendered power systems.
This discussion will consist of three sections. Section one is called “Interrogating the table as a site”. Beginning with an introduction into the connection between power, eating ritual and the female. Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique will be used
to interrogate this connection. Moving forward, the table will be examined as a site that has been used during second wave feminism. Key figures during this period are Marina Abramovic and Judy Chicago. I will progress to examine Carrie Mae Weems’ The Kitchen Table Series to bring the discussion into the beginning of third-wave feminism. Where the majority of this discussion will be situated. The second part is called “Auto/Biography and The Self: The Relationship to Power and Ritual.” Exploring how power is enacted through the use of autobiographical techniques employed by female artists. Self-referentiality is a key thread running through the works of Sophie Calle, Vanessa Beecroft, Alison Knowles and Zackary Drucker. The final section is a case study on the work of Vanessa Beecroft. Starting at the beginning of her career in between second and third wave feminism, up until the end of the third wave. The analysis of Beecroft’s work will seek to understand how The Feminine Mystique and the fulfilment of femininity is explored at the table. How methods of power play and ritual are used in order to explore these dynamics.
It is important to note the limitations of this discussion. Nonbinary presentations of gender are crucial in understanding power and its relationship to the body and society. They should be acknowledged, included and celebrated. However, when written about deserve the same depth of understanding as is provided to binary presentations of gender. Without due diligence done within research, to properly analyse the works with this lens, it would be unjust for me to discuss in this discussion. This is done to avoid any observations that could lead to the perpetuation of misconceptions and prejudice. Moreover, as a precursor to this discussion, I acknowledge that the depth of exploration into the points raised will not form a deep understanding of the works explored. Instead, it serves as a discussion of the role of the table and its presentation in the auto/biographical works of female identifying artists. Finally, the discussion uses the lens of the masculine centred mindset of society. I use the term ‘masculine’ to refer to both the masculine as a single entity. Looking at the stereotypical/heteronormative traits of the male in society. But also, as a way to refer to society as a whole. Therefore, facilitating
1. Interrogating the table as a site
The Feminine Mystique (Friedan, 38) signifies a link between power, the female and eating ritual. Friedan explains how The Feminine Mystique places a woman’s value in the fulfilment of their own femininity.
Figure two shows the February 1967 issue of Women’s Own. The lead article is “Free for slimmers: Weight Watchers cookbook”. The epitome of The Feminine Mystique is plastered across the front page of this women’s magazine. Presented at the start of the second wave of feminism. Drawing the domestic woman in through: diet control, husband pleasing, kitchen duties and the clothes they wear.
Figure 2 : Women’s Own, , 18 Feb 1967. Magazine Cover. The Independent, 15 Jan 2018
A woman’s femininity has largely been attributed to her physical appearance. Whilst women began breaching the power structure of society throughout second wave feminism, disordered eating rose exponentially (Wolf, 10). As women gained power in their lives, they continued to grapple with the power society had to control their bodies. As alluded to by Wolf, physical appearance is easily controlled by the obsessive/ritualistic eating associated with disordered eating. An ideology that women throughout time have been indoctrinated with through methods of power. An example being the magazine cover seen in figure two.
Women’s Own, also exemplifies the juxtaposition women are faced with when aiming to achieve The Feminine Mystique. The internal power struggle women must indulge in daily when they are expected to be “slimmers”, but equally have “150 ways” to remain in control of the kitchen. Women are conditioned to be restrictive with their bodies. Simultaneously remaining in control of the site where the things they are restricting, food and eating, are in abundance. The kitchen table in this context could be considered a site of power play for women when we look back to the start of second wave feminism and The Feminine Mystique.
Figure 4: Abramovic, Marina. “Marina Abramovic pictured during the Rhythm 0 performance” 1974, Photograph. Culturieuse, 19 May 2021.
Figure 3: Abramovic, Marina. Rhythm 0. 1974. Installation of Performance Piece. Lisson Gallery, London.
The opportunity for power play within work by female artists has led to the use of the table as an object in many seminal pieces of the early second wave feminist movement. Despite this, the table is infrequently used as a lens to discuss the works themselves. Scharnhorst highlights this by noting that “tables are so rarely described in any detail by the artists … who make use of them” (15). However, we can use the table as a lens to understand the power dynamics at play within the piece, when we consider what it is that they are displaying.
The table in Marina Abramovic’s Rhythm 0 (1974) is rarely referenced, apart from as a vehicle to hold other objects. Figure three shows 72 objects displayed on the table for use within the performance. The table isn’t referenced as being a usable object as many of the other items are. Concurrently, the question of whether women artists are considered subjects or objects when their bodies are used in performance pieces is raised when looking at Abramovic’s Rhythm 0 (Renzi, 121). Figure four shows Abramovic bound by chains and fabric lying on top of a table. Here Renzi’s question is exemplified when we try and decipher whether Abramovic is a subject or an object. Her body is presented in the same way as the objects, with the site for both being the table.
Power is contested here between
the words subject and object when there is no separation between the artists body and the items on the table. Abramovic passively displays her body as an object (Renzi, 124), creating an indecipherable union between body and table. Our questioning of whether she is considered a subject or object in Rhythm 0, raises the larger debate of the unison the female body has to the table. From Abramovic’s encounter with the table it could be deciphered that the body is considered no different to these inanimate objects – regarding both the 72 objects displayed, and the table itself. Women are simultaneously seen to be served on the table and historically be the gender to serve them. The entanglement between the two can be understood because of the “ideologies of domesticity” (Scharnhorst, 7). Something referenced later in the discussion. Here the site of the table has become the dominant power as it is the ‘plate’ in which all other things are displayed. It dictates our understanding of the hierarchy and balance between subject and object.
The table is used by artists to enact gendered power hierarchies, often associated with domesticity. Through the exploration of table centred works by female artists, we are confronted with a continued reimagining of The Last Supper (1498) by Leonardo Da Vinci. Shown in figure five. Furthermore, we are shown how these gendered power dynamics are revisited through its reinterpretations.
The omission of women from The Last Supper is not uncommon in the canon of the artistic portrayal of Biblical text. For example, a ‘last supper’ co-officiated by Mary and Jesus is continuously expunged by artists (Kateusz). In figure five, Da Vinci serves us with this male centred biblical depiction which has been challenged by many, including Kateusz, in religious discourse.
Figure 5: Da Vinci, Leonardo. Last Supper. 1495-1498, Tempera on gesso, pitch and mastic. Santa Maria Della Grazie, Milan.
The representation of women relies upon the cultural assumptions from the time the work is created. The “Bible produces docile bodies. It puts the Biblical woman in her place, and she becomes a reduced other” (Aaadland, 1). Da Vinci’s depiction continues to enforce the cultural memory of the otherness associated with the female body in Biblical text. However, artists working during second wave feminism subvert The Last Supper. Progressing the cultural assumptions of the female body for the forthcoming generations. The works of these artists place women in the frame. Mary Beth Edelson’s Some Living American Women Artists from 1972 (figure six) is the most conspicuous example of this subversion. Literally pasting the female body over and around the male in order to depict the powerful women associated with modern American art. The female body is placed in the position of power at the table. Compared to the docile position of the female only being in service to it and it’s guests.
The comparison of Edelson and Da Vinci’s work shows how The Last Supper has been used to create a narrative where patriarchy and the male doesn’t hold these dominating positions of power at the table. The Last Supper and it’s relation to the docile female body can be interlaced into table-based works by female artists. Even in considering Abramovic’s Rhythm 0 where she serves her body on a table, we can see a comparison to The Last Supper. In ”The Last Supper” Jesus uses bread to symbolise his body, “Take this and eat it, for this is my body” (New Living Translation Bible, Matthew 26:26). The site at which Jesus serves his body is the table. The same site at which Abramovic serves hers. Both for the consumption of others.
Figure 6: Edelson, Mary Beth. Some Living American Women Artists. 1972, Collage. Museum of Modern Art, New York.
Unification of The Feminine Mystique, ‘serving’ the female body and reinterpretation of The Last Supper is evident in Judy Chicago’s The Dinner Party from 1979. The Dinner Party is generally accepted as the seminal piece of table based work by a female artist. Broad exploration of the feminine and power, through the lens of the table, can be consolidated through the discernment of the influential stature of the work.
The Dinner Party, in its installation form, can be seen in figure seven. The triangle table depicts the ancient symbol for the “divine feminine” (Hemming, 16). The 13 place settings along each side, are an ode to The Last Supper. Referencing the 13 place settings for the 12 disciples and Jesus. Whilst the metaphor of the dinner party itself highlights that the women Chicago included were being “served up to be consumed” (Levin, 251). The use of the table and depictions of the feminine body was part of “the nonverbal language Chicago created to symbolize the praxis of femininity and power.” (Chansky, 53).
It is evident that The Dinner Party is unequivocally linked to the dilution of the masculine. Chicago’s pedestalling of the feminine and omission of the masculine, through visual language, cooperates this.
Abramovic and Edelson allude to the table and its connection to the feminine. However, there is a blatancy to which Chicago offers up these women. Creating an archetype for future artists to explore how the feminine and the table intertwine.
Chicago states through her language that women belong at the table, but not in the way The Feminine Mystique insinuated. “Under the Feminine Mystique, virtually all … women were condemned to a compulsive attitude towards domesticity” (Wolf, 272). There is a reconstruction of the relationship between feminine and domesticity in The Dinner Party, through methods of power play. It is important to highlight the time frame of Chicago’s work. Created at at the beginning of second-wave feminism. Moreover, its proximity to Betty Friedan’s Feminine Mystique. The timing of The Dinner Party meant the topics it addressed were firmly in the public forum. This enabled The Dinner Party to gain momentum through its presentation, touring, criticisms and praise. Collaborating to give The Dinner Party an influential status in the subsequent exploration of this link between domesticity and the feminine.
Figure 7: Chicago, Judy. The Dinner Party, 1974-1979. Installation. Brooklyn Museum, New York.Carrie Mae Weems’ The Kitchen Table Series (1990) is a response to ideas about the spaces of domesticity. Born from a desire to develop her own voice (“The Kitchen Table Series”). Weems demonstrates how the feminine is performed in private space. Moreover, highlighting the power the table wields in the production of this performance.
Judith Butler ascertains in Gender
Trouble that “what we take to be an internal essence of gender is manufactured through a sustained set of acts” (xv). This performance of femininity can be explored through referring to The Kitchen Table Series. Figure eight shows Weems’ Untitled (Eating Lobster) from the 1990 series. In which Weems is seen comforting the male subject. Notable is that her glass and plate are seemingly untouched, whilst his is empty and devoured. Illuding back to the Women’s Own magazine from 1967, where the feminine sex is expected to serve the table but not indulge in the eating practice.
“Weems’ capacity to perform herself performing herself” (Stupart, 33) is the enactment of the expectations of domesticity. Throughout the series Weems presents herself as mother, nurturer, the feminine sex. In figure eight Weems is nurturing the male subject whilst remaining demure and restrained, both attributes of femininity. Here Weems is enacting the role women assume under The Feminine Mystique. Weems refers in her own words to the same role as being a “social contract” (“The Kitchen Table Series”). By personating the prescribed rules of gender found under The Feminine Mystique, Weems is bearing witness to Butler’s position on the performativity of gender and the feminine. Throughout the series Weems is performing
the feminine through calculated acts and scenes.
The table extends out the end of the frame inviting the viewer to become a spectator to the performance. Scharnhorst describes how this “turns the table from an object into a space” (11). There is an invitation of the public into a private performance of the social contract. An example of the way Weems plays with power in The Kitchen Table Series. The table has wielded a subtle power to bind both the subjects in the image and the viewer outside of frame in a shared experience (Kelsey, 53). There is reiteration in The Kitchen Table Series that the table is a space and container for the feminine to be performed and simultaneously witnessed.
Figure 8: Weems, Carrie Mae. The Kitchen Table Series: Eating Lobster. 1990, Photograph. National Gallery of Art, Washington.Figure
The table is a site used by female artists to gain back a sense of power and control. The restatement of this power can be seen through the works of seminal feminist artists throughout second wave feminism. Through the exploration of these table based works it can be discerned that the table is a feminist object. Using the table to explore power and control over their physical bodies,
seen in Marina Abramovic’s Rhythm 0. The expected performance of femininity, seen in The Kitchen Table Series. Or over patriarchal systems of oppression, evidenced by Mary Beth Edelson and Judy Chicago.
A refuge, homeplace and a space of resistance for women (Scharnhorst, 12). Suzanne Lacy and Linda Pruess’ International Dinner Party (1979) exemplifies
these characteristics of the table. Reiterating the use of the table as a site for feminist gathering. Figure nine shows one photograph from the worldwide dinner party Lacy and Pruess organised. Documented and taking place on the eve of Judy Chicago’s The Dinner Party. Over 200 groups from around the world hosted their own feminist dinner parties, over a 24 hour period, in response to Chicago’s work. Sending photos to Lacy and Pruess who added them to an interactive global map.
Judith Butler states that for the conditions of power “to persist, they must be reiterated” (Psychic Life 16). This reiteration throughout the movement by multiple artists only exasperates the power the table holds as a site. By continuously exploring internal power struggles with body, femininity and patriarchy, the table as a site has power imprinted onto it. Lacy and Pruess’ International Dinner Party is in itself a reiteration of the work of Judy Chicago. Repeating the message that the table can be used as a “positioning device” (Stupart, 25) for feminist explorations of power.
An external thread to the lens of the table that connects all the works explored so far is the sense of auto/biography. International Dinner Party is a piece of auto/ biographical work. Actualising the artistic work of Judy Chicago with stories of women
gathering around the table in present time. Exploring the auto/biographical work of female artists through the lens of the table is something that will be explored next in this discussion.
9: Hunter, Alexis. ‘The Dinner Party (International)’.1979. Photograph. The Women’s Art Library, Special Collections and Archives. Goldsmiths, University of London.2. Auto/Biography and The Self: The Relationship to Power and Ritual
The
women to lives of domesticity, often centred around an identity of serving the table. However, female artists demonstrate through auto/biographical work the nuanced relationships that the female has to the table. Highlighting how a sense of identity can be disinterred through the daily relationship and interaction that is had with the table.
Figure 10: Knowles, Alison. Journal of The Identical Lunch. 1971, Scan of Published Book. Nova Broadcast Press. Feminine Mystique constructed and fabricated the feminine image. TyingFigure ten is a scan of Alison Knowles Journal of The Identical Lunch (1971). For two years Knowles ate the same lunch, at the same time, in the same place. The main component being a tuna fish sandwich. Since its conception The Identical Lunch has continued to evolve. Developing into graphic works, large scale performances and intimate diary documentation of the ritual. The auto/biographical works of female artists ”document the personal lives of individuals… also [evidencing] larger collective historical experiences” (Simon, 150). The Journal of The Identical Lunch constructs an identity of Knowles. As a mother, as a friend, as an artist and as a collaborator. Furthermore, her often monotonous documentation of the ritual is punctuated by key political moments. For example, the continuity of the Vietnam War. In this auto/biographical work “Knowles provides a critical space of reflection for life as its lived amid a myriad of political economies” (Woods, 160).
Notwithstanding the political climate Knowles continued to return to the table. This daily and ritualised return, alludes to the performance of routine. Carrie Mae Weems continued to return to the table addressing how gender influences the way we perform these routines. Therefore, when we examine the identities Knowles explores in The Identical Lunch we must consider how the performance of gender plays a role in their construction. There is a power in constructing an identity in spite of the conditions associated with gendered relationships to the table. The “cultural and gender hybridity” (Marcus, 273-81) of Knowles auto/biographical work illudes to how the table can act as a site of power and ritual. Specifically when constructing feminine identities that are interlocked with gender performance and cultural events.
The function of ritual for female artists allows for the discernment of the cultural and societal implications involved in having a feminine identity. As explored, the table is a site where these cultural/societal expectations are upheld. Here beginning to understand why the documentation of the female experience around the table is crucial. Primarily for female artists to respond to larger issues faced by the female presenting body.
Figure 11: Beecroft, Vanessa. The Book of Food. Two Star Books, Paris. 2006. Front Cover Figure 12: Beecroft, Vanessa. “Vanessa Beecroft drawing 1993-2007”. 1993-2007, Pastel Drawing. Eleanor Pearch Research File, 2014.In Vanessa Beecroft’s journal Despair (shown in figure 11 in its published format
The Book of Food), Beecroft documented the types, colours and quantities of food that she consumed. Also recording through drawing and painting images of the female (figure 12). Archiving her personal “thoughts relating to the ingested food and body image” (Roll, 12).
Despair is Beecroft’s first published work. However, it went on to become a selfreferential tool for exploring larger themes within her future work. The detailing of her bulimia and corresponding obsessive behaviour allowed Beecroft to engage in works exploring “identity, sexuality and nudity of women…gaze and control…ideals, stereotypes and resistance” (Hirvonen, 141). Naomi Wolf in The Beauty Myth continuously highlights how female oral appetite has been supressed and repressed by modern culture (97). How this has led to the identity of the feminine being intrinsically tied to thinness and body control. Beecroft exemplifies through a lifetime of obsessive documentation how indoctrinated the female body is with these ideals. By publishing the journal, her personal dysfunction gives voice and actualises the larger issues that Wolf comments on. Beecroft’s self-referential use of Despair and her drawings will be explored later in this discussion.
Auto/biography illustrates the knotty relationship between self and culture (Simon, 151). Alison Knowles and Beecroft both used the documentation of interaction with table and eating ritual as a way to create larger bodies of work. In the use of their texts they have ascertained a sense of self within broader cultural and societal contexts. Simultaneously, there is a knotty relationship the feminine identity has to the table. In considering this, the table could be used as a signifier of culture; the feminine identity a signifier of ‘self’.
Self-referentiality is employed by artists such as Beecroft and Knowles through the use of their diary and journal works. Equally it is used as a tool for female artists to respond to their relationships with the table. Creating an auto/biographical dialogue between artist and table. In which the artist has the ability to exaggerate or manipulate the truth in the name of art. Situating the self in conjunction with text based stimuli is a practice Sophie Calle has employed throughout her career. Using the idea of self in her work to manipulate the power she has over the subjects and objects she creates work with.
Figure 13: Calle, Sophie. The Chromatic Diet: Sunday. 1998. Photograph. Double Game, by Sophie Calle and Paul Auster, Violette Editions, 2007, pg. 20-21The Chromatic Diet produced in 1998 (figure 13) is from Calle’s larger body of work Double Game (1999). In Double Game, Calle performs as the fictional character Maria, from the book Leviathan (1992) by Paul Auster. Calle begins a bizarre dialogue with Auster’s fictional character, who was based on Calle herself, by following Maria’s “chromatic regimen…[of] restricting herself to foods of a single colour for any given day” (Calle,10-11).
The Chromatic Diet fictionalises a biographical piece of work. In which Calle mythologizes her life (Merkin, 100) and in turn creates a “tenuous boundary between life and art” (Dimakopoulou, 81). Calle’s obsessive nature to perform Auster’s description of Maria’s diet, in spite of its bizarre restrictions, is a example of power play in her work. However, you are still aware of Calle’s artistic direction. Exemplified through the way she is in control of the image and its aesthetic value. Therefore, the work itself could be construed as a performance to Calle. This “trace of performance” (Laframboise, 2) is something Carrie Mae Weems also explored in The Kitchen Table Series. Calle is performing a biographical version of herself. Similar to the way Weems “performs herself performing herself” (Stupart, 33). Calle is exerting power over the public image Auster has created of her in his fictional writing of Maria. Calle achieves this reclamation of control through the way she lives out Maria’s diet and visually documents it. By controlling herself, she is controlling the narrative. Similar to how The Feminine Mystique portrays that by controlling one’s body or image you can control your value.
In The Chromatic Diet the table is a submissive object for Calle. Its inanimate nature lends itself as a site for Calle to regain control over a fictionalised narrative of her life. Again, highlighting how the table is a homeplace for women. A site they feel safe to explore control and power. Even if this is a false sense of power is ultimately bestowed to them under The Feminine Mystique and notions of domesticity.
LEFT) Figure 14: Calle, Sophie. Young Girls Dream (Les Autobiographies). 1992, Photograph. Burger Collection, n.d.
Hegemonic Masculinity is a term coined by Raewyn Connell in the early 80’s. Illuding to “a set of values, established by men in power that functions to include and exclude, and to organize society in gender unequal ways” (Jewkes and Morrell). Hegemonic masculinity is the rejection of the feminine. Therefore, the hegemonic masculine arguably controls the classification of femininity under The Feminine Mystique. The ways in which artists exemplify the power the hegemonic masculine holds is through methods of power play with their own experiences of the male.
As evidenced in The Chromatic Diet, Calle often enters into a dialogue with the masculine. The gendered correspondence between the masculine and the feminine is evident in her work (Fisher, 223). Young Girls Dream (1992) is shown in figure 14. The phallic image is a replication of the dessert Calle was served at age 15. After picking it at a restaurant based on its name, the waiter insisted it was a surprise and when he returned simply said “enjoy” and smiled (“Sophie Calle”). The dessert is then replicated in The Chromatic Diet (Friday), shown in the top right hand corner of figure 15.
There is a submission of 15 year old Calle to the waiters display of the hegemonic masculine. A Freudian display of the masculine and the feminine, the young girl expected to “fall a victim to envy for the penis” (Freud, 252). Through reference to auto/biography and then the repetition of this in later work, we see how Calle has been damaged by the experience with the masculine in her adolescence. Wolf illudes to this by stating that “being undamaged is inconceivable; to exist as a women, even as an adolescent girl, is to be damaged” (96). However, the reclamation of the submission Calle once felt is an example of power play. Calle has formed an identity in understanding the submission the feminine has to the masculine. Young Girl’s Dream becomes a part of her visual identity through its repetition. Due to the self-reflexive nature of Calle’s work, we can also consider that it becomes part of her personal identity too. Discovering who she is in association and relation to the hegemonic masculine experiences in her life.
This discussion has explored how the feminine body and identity has been served at the table. However, in looking at Calle’s work it is important to reflect on how the feminine body is served in association with the masculine. Exploring how female artists have navigated the synergy between the hegemonic masculine and The Feminine Mystique.
As referenced in the exploration of Marina Abramovic’s Rhythm 0, the table dictates our understanding of the hierarchy and balance between subject and object. Similarly to how the hegemonic masculine dictates the balance between the feminine and the masculine. In exploring the convergence of these two ideas we can begin to examine the body with more intersectionality. Consequently understanding how artists working in third wave feminism have developed the works of second wave feminist artists. Further disrupting power dynamics imposed on the non-male body.
Figure 16: Drucker, Zackary. The Inability to be Looked at the Horror of Nothing to See 2009, Photograph of Performance piece. Art Pulse, n.d.
Zackary Drucker is a queer performance artist. Her work a “direct, unapologetic confrontation between the audience and her body, gender and voice” (Bollen). The Inability to be Looked at the Horror of Nothing to See (2009) is shown in figure 16. Drucker’s androgynous body lays on a table surrounded by tweezers, inviting the audience to pluck her body hair. There is an undeniable correlation between Drucker and Abramovic’s work. Both offering the audience objects. With free reign of the use of these objects on their bodies. However, unlike Abramovic, Drucker positions herself as the subject. Drucker is intensely aware of the representation of her trans body and the “intense political nature of the staged self” (Carver, 395). Contrastingly Abramovic consciously relieved her body of any autonomy. Carver highlights the intrinsic and politicised perception of nonmale and marginalized bodies in society. Something Abramovic didn’t address. In the comparison of the two works there is a definite sense of submission in Rhythm 0. Yet a sense of strength and power in the way Drucker displays herself. Heteronormativity is prescribed under the hegemonic masculine and The Feminine Mystique. Drucker presents heteronormativity in juxtaposition with her microscopic attention to the
presumed perception of her marginalized body (Neel). Therefore, in understanding how she is perceived, Drucker can control the power dynamics that are at play. Being in control of how her body is served and the power dynamics of the interaction between her and those around the table.
Archias explains how the body is the site at which ”power realizes the bulk of its most deeply penetrating manipulations”
(“Vito Acconci”). Drucker has used her body to manipulate the power dynamics employed by heteronormativity under the hegemonic masculine. Disrupting “ways of seeing, looking and viewing women’s bodies”
(Carver, 394) at the table.
Figure 18: Calle, Sophie. Pig (Les Autobiographies) 2001, Photograph. Burger Collection, n.d.
The embodiment of the self in third wave feminism artworks allows for a dialogue between the table, audience and power.
Sophie Calle’s Pig (2001) and Zackary Drucker’s Don’t Look At Me Like That (2010) are shown in figures 17 and 18. In both these works there is the representation of the self and the table. Drucker laid nude on a table surrounded by cutlery. Whilst Calle wears a pig nose on top of two hands holding a knife and fork. Equally the aesthetics of beauty and the male gaze are questioned in each of the works. Jim Drobnick speaks to how artists engaging with the body erase the distinctions between art and the self. In order to disrupt the societal structures of aesthetics and gaze (65).
Pig (figure 18) is a response to a man saying Calle ate like a pig. Reflecting on it she says “I can’t remember a thing about him, yet he’s still sitting at my table” (“Pig”). The rejection Calle gave this man, after she refused to sleep with him, led to him asserting his omnipresent power over her body. The male gaze and its perception of what is considered feminine is shown when he refers to her as a “pig”. A term inherently unfeminine. The power the masculine holds is exemplified through her inability to forget him. The male gaze and aesthetics of femininity are similarly addressed by Drucker in Don’t Look At Me Like That (figure 17). In constructing a feminine identity, the male gaze and aesthetics of beauty subjugate her to being domesticated yet equally exoticized (“Zackary Drucker”). There is a reclamation and a reworking of the submission both feel to the male gaze and aesthetics of beauty. The positioning of their own body and personal narrative as a vehicle for their art creates this sense of a more powerful self (Carver, 394). Whilst they equally both exemplify Drobnick’s assertation that this sense of self is what disrupts the power the male gaze and aesthetics of femininity and beauty have over them.
Despite this reclamation of power in both Calle and Drucker’s work, the audience is acutely aware of the more sinister undertones of the tables presence in the work. Both women are rejecting the power dynamics the dominating masculine imposes personally and societally. However, it can be recognised, through the site they use, that when this is done, women are sent back to their place. This site is the table. A place women should feel shame and submission. As the masculine upholds the mindset that you can’t be domesticised and be powerful. Through the work of Vanessa Beecroft; self, male gaze, aesthetics of beauty and the table will be explored next in this discussion.
2. Resolving Power Through Ritual: Vanessa Beecroft
To be consumed but not to consume is a running theme in the work of female artists explored in this discussion. Moreover, the duality of domesticity-autonomy is exemplified throughout. The reckoning of a masculine society’s role in this duality is
where artists find space to play with power dynamics. Vanessa Beecroft’s body of work presents itself as a way to analyse this further. She continuously explores the ideals of femininity through her ritualistic auto/ biographical relationship with the table.
Figure 19: Beecroft, Vanessa. VB01. 1993. Photographic print of Film. Galleria Luciano IgnaPin, Milan.
VB01 (1993) is the performance piece that accompanied Beecroft’s presentation of The Book of Food referenced earlier. Figure 19 shows a photographic print of a still from the film. The book was placed in the centre of the room, surrounded by 30 girls who were chosen due to their resemblance to Beecroft. Around the room lied Beecroft’s drawings and sketches. Representative of her distorted perception of those suffering with eating disorders (La Galleria Nazionale).
Beecroft choreographs the behaviours of her models in relation to her own auto/ biography. By staging them in an environment surrounded by her personal dysfunction she imposes her experience on neutral bodies. In this scenario Beecroft is the controller of the power. Wolf highlights that “when power toys with beauty…display behaviour has been choreographed before the woman has had the chance to enter the room where she will be
evaluated” (47). It could be inferred that Beecroft is performing the role of society. Demonstrating perfectly that these women are there to be evaluated. Presenting them in conjunction with an idealised version of herself, thus the idealised version of femininity and beauty. Although this representation of femininity is created through the delusions of her eating disorder. In this, the power-beauty dynamic that Wolf is alluding to is exemplified.
Boucher states that by Beecroft placing her models in this environment she is establishing “a relationship between the fed and the nourisher” (7). Relating back to the complexities associated with the feminine relationship to domesticity. We also see in Beecroft’s work that her work is inherently about her own physical autonomy. Yet she explores this by stripping her models of their own autonomy. Leaving them, not her, to be examined by the audience of her performance. In Beecroft’s first professional debut she explores the multiple levels of power play available when exploring the feminine relationship with eating ritual.
Next in the discussion I will be referencing Beecroft’s body of work as a whole rather than a focus on the lens of eating ritual. There is a confusion present when looking at Beecroft’s body of work. It is hard to not question if Beecroft works for or against the promotion of The Feminine Mystique
There are two lenses that her work can be viewed through. The first: the context of it being performance art. The second is through the lens of her contributions to the fashion world. Figure 20 is a photograph from the performance of VB46 (2001). Figure 21 shows the presentation of Kanye West’s season 2 Yeezy collection,
in which Beecroft acted as art director. Although both operating in different contexts there is a similarity in the visual language of both. Making them recognisably Beecroft’s. However, that visual language is predominantly the skinny, white model.
As discussed The Feminine Mystique is the portrayal of perfect femininity. In one context we could view Beecroft’s work as the “staging of femininity” (C. Johnson, 326). This would ascertain that femininity is staged, a performance. Echoing the theories of Judith Butler. Suggesting that Beecroft’s work is a rejection of the ideals of femininity. Highlighting the absurdity of one unified image of beauty through the near identical nude models. However, The Feminine Mystique infiltrates culture through presentation of feminine ideals in institutions of power. One of those institutions of power is the fashion world. Naomi Wolf highlights that the fashion world uses images of ideal female beauty as a political weapon, acting as a violent backlash against feminism (10). Figure 21 shows that Beecroft has replicated the images of beauty she uses in her performance pieces. Executed through a predominantly white, yet continuously skinny, model cohort. Although here, there is no context of the absurdity her performances comment on. The use of thinness is an aesthetic. Drucker presented an awareness of
how her body is perceived in a wider political context. Beecroft has omitted this awareness from her work with the fashion industry. From Wolf’s commentary it could be ascertained that Beecroft’s work is perpetuating the continued glamorisation and weaponization of an ideal model of female beauty.
The foundation of Beecroft’s work is however her performance art. Her work in this context continuously asks us to question how “scopophilia operates in our social environment” (Roll, 1). Meaning it is ultimately a reaction to the power of the male gaze and its ability to dehumanize the feminine body.
Figure 21: Brooke, Randy. “Kanye West at presentation of Yeezy clothing line, which was conceived by Beecroft”. 2016, Photograph. Artnet, 9 Feb 2016.The aestheticism of Beecroft’s fashion work is inherent. However, as her work has matured we still see those ties to the dinner table. Specifically as a site for power play with the omnipotent nature of the patriarchy. Therefore, it is arguable that Beecroft’s work becomes a playground for aesthetics and power to confer.
Figure 22 shows Beecroft’s work with the brand Tod’s. In the image supermodel Karlie Kloss reclines on a wooden table, surrounded by 13 other models and an older, significantly smaller man. Reintroducing figure five, The Last Supper, you can visually see the striking comparison of Beecroft’s work to the piece by Da Vinci. The colour pallet and its placement throughout the image, alongside the positioning of each of the models. The use of hair is also notable. In the way the colour and textures mimic those in The Last Supper.
Although aesthetically the images can be examined, the work can be explored through the lens of what it means to reinterpret The Last Supper. Specifically from a feminine perspective. As discussed earlier Da Vinci’s work reinforces the Bible’s production of the docile female body. The term docile meaning to accept control, submission (”Docile”). Kloss reclines on the table submitting to four artisans “deftly stich[ing] a sensual” (”VB Handmade”) dress on her body. The body here becomes a stage for the production of a sexually gratifying garment. Furthermore, there is a cultural familiarity to Beecroft’s models. A body recognised from the representations in media (Bieger, 682). Through the reinterpretation of The Last Supper, Beecroft has represented the familiar aesthetic of the docile female body. It could be argued that aesthetically staging the female body in relation to patriarchal imaging is a powerful technique in the commentary of cultural assumptions. Aestheticism has been used to reinterpret a patriarchal image. ”Differently script[ing], differently dramatiz[ing], differently realiz[ing]” (Schneider, 7) cultural assumptions of the table and its presentation in relation to the feminine.
Referring back to Judith Butler’s comment that for power to persist reiteration must occur. There is continued reiteration in Beecroft’s work that this presentation of the feminine is the cultural norm. Alluding to the recognition of there still being an ideal of femininity. Highlighting the power that it holds over society. However, it remains to be seen if without Beecroft’s personal narrative this is realized in a progressive or regressive way.
Figure 22: Beecroft, Vanessa. “VB Handmade Performance for Tod’s”. 2019, Fashion Presentation. Tod’s. n.d.
Figure 5: Da Vinci, Leonardo. Last Supper. 1495-1498, Tempera on gesso, pitch and mastic. Santa Maria Della Grazie, Milan.
Under the fulfilment of The Feminine Mystique women are valued; rewarded with desirability and representation. If you analyse Beecroft’s work for it’s aesthetic value this is exemplified. However, the notion of suffering is generally omitted from the dialogue when society talks about the fulfilment of femininity. This is where the progressive aspect of Beecroft’s work could be considered. Highlighting how the socially celebrated achievement of desirability can’t exist without suffering.
Figure 23 and 24 show two views of the eight-hour performance VB52 (2003). 32
models are served a monochromatic banquet whilst appearing distracted and disengaged. Each colour is brought out as a course. The performance is based on The Book of Food where Beecroft documented each individual colour and quantity of food that she ate during the years she suffered with an eating disorder.
Wolf suggests that a “mass neurosis was promoted that used food and weight to strip women of [a] sense of control” (11). Beecroft’s personal relationship to the table and eating
Figure 23: Beecroft, Vanessa. VB52. 2003, Performance Piece. Juliet, n.d
Figure 24: Beecroft, Vanessa. VB52. 2003, Performance Piece. Affaritaliani. N.d..
ritual is plagued with suffering. We are represented this through the repeated self-referencing to The Book of Food. However, the creation of a mass ritual, rather than an individual one, alludes to this suffering being universally experienced. As Wolf comments on. Seen throughout Beecroft’s work the models are “visually idealized female archetypes” (Roll, 9). Whilst writers, such as Wolf, highlight the delusions society has to the achievement of the ideal feminine archetype. Women are still commended on their ability to endure the suffering and neurosis that comes with it. As stated earlier being rewarded with desirability and representation. VB52 is the contrived portrayal of Beecroft’s own dysfunction combined with this aesthetic resemblance of ideal femininity (a thin, white, pruned body). Inviting the audience to infer that the achievement of desirability comes at the price of obsession, ultimately a state of suffering.
The lack of understanding for what Beecroft is trying to achieve speaks to Fischer-Lichte’s opinion. Arguing that the concern of performance is not to understand but to experience and cope with these experiences (17). In the works of Chicago, Weems, Calle and Drucker we understand that through the table they are attempting to regain a power they lost. Acting as a rejection of The Feminine Mystique and hegemonic masculine. Whereas Beecroft’s work feels like a representation of those ideals. All the audience can do when witnessing Beecroft’s work is watch the performance of The Feminine Mystique and experience the table as a site of suffering under its control.
The dismissal of the privacy of suffering is a connecting link between the work of Sophie Calle and Vanessa Beecroft. They force the hand of the audience into watching the suffering they endure in relationships between the self, the male and the table. In the previous explorations of Calle and Beecroft’s work there is already an understanding of their links to auto/biographical ritual and power. Specifically over the table as a site. However, the nod to voyeurism in their work is a way to examine how they exert power over their audience, not just the table.
In the following discussion I reintroduce Beecroft’s VB52 (figure 25 shows the full view of the piece). Alongside Calle’s The Chromatic Diet. Shown again in figure 13. These pieces share the implementation of suffering on eating ritual. Both execute this in the same way through the requirement to eat a monochromatic diet. They then publicise their private auto/biographical experiments for an audience to watch and or experience.
Performance as a practice “redefines the relationship between subject and object, observer and observed, spectator and actor” (Fischer-Lichte, 17). The ‘and’ connecting these words implies a sense of voyeurism. You watch one suffer at the hands of the other. For example, in VB52, Beecroft explores spectator and actor. With the audience watching the performers endure a gruelling eight-hour banquet. Both actor and spectator sharing a detachment from the other elements in the performance. There is a voyeurism in the way Beecroft makes the audience watch the suffering of these objects of desire (Oliver, 122). In The Chromatic Diet, Calle explored the relationship between the observed and the observer. She was observed by Auster but is observing Maria. Then presenting this back to Auster. The audiences voyeurism emerges whilst watching the contest of power and suffering play out in the work. Exemplified through the way Calle scrambles to regain power over Maria but suffers through the bizarre rules that are inflicted. There is a human predisposition to watch the suffering of others in performance art. Exemplified in Abramovic and Drucker’s work. The way the artists use the audiences predisposition to voyeurism is an example of a restatement of power and control. Arguably a control they lost through their obsessive and ritualistic experiences with the monochromatic diet.
The discussion into Calle and Beecroft’s work individually and comparatively arguably creates this relationship between power and voyeurism. Fischer-Lichte highlighted how there is constantly a back and forth between relationships. This equally speaks to the exploration of the table and its relationship to power and ritual. Explored throughout the works in this discussion.
Figure 13: Calle, Sophie. The Chromatic Diet: Sunday. 1998. Photograph. Double Game, by Sophie Calle and Paul Auster, Violette Editions, 2007, pg. 20-21
Figure 26: Beecroft, Vanessa. Untitled (From VB64). 2008, Three paraffin wax sculptures on steel tables. Artsy, n.d
The table carries social baggage as a site. It’s inherent ties to domesticity, submission, objectification, obsession and voyeurism have been explored throughout this discussion. However, in its reiteration throughout second and third wave feminist works, we can begin to understand how power is resolved. Through the ritualistic presentations of the feminine.
VB64 (2008) is shown in figure 26 and 27. Figure 26 shows a view of the black paraffin wax sculptures, lying on tables. Whilst figure 27 shows live models covered in white powder. Incorporated into the display are indistinguishable sculpted white female body casts (Maff). Lying on both table platforms and the floor.
In VB64 there is a tension between life and death (P. Johnson). The live models interacting with stone bodies. The table separating the bodies further. As in Abramovic’s work, the table serves as a site for displays of hierarchy. It also dictates the gaze. Drawn to and from stone and flesh. There is a power battle between the perfectly carved, placed body and the transposing flesh one. The table has allowed Beecroft to formulate how the audience experiences these bodies. Landwehr highlights how the
controlling of gaze, allows artists to gain control and power (122). The formulaic construction of gaze therefore allows for Beecroft’s power play. Furthermore, there is a ritualism to VB64. Not just in evoking the ritual of life and death. But in the ritualistic displays of femininity and its relatedness to the table. There is a propensity to place the female body or femininity at the table (Caldwell, 36).
Figure 26 shows the feminine never being able to move from the site. Presented in this stone stillness. Moulded in a state of rigid surrender. Arguably this is the state The Feminine Mystique spoke to the creation of. A perfectly carved mould of femininity, tying women to a life of the table. Whilst figures 27 shows a limbo state. The feminine being set in stone but still having some fluidity. A state that is performed throughout the works explored in this discussion. There is power in highlighting the unbreakable links the female has to the table. Whilst still allowing for movement and freedom from it if they choose. This could discern that VB64 is an attempt to resolve the power dynamic of the table. Simultaneously highlighting the rigid relationship but the hope for disconnect if that’s what is chosen.
In the exploration of Despair, VB01, VB46, the Yeezy season two
presentation, VB52 and VB64 Beecroft has continued to exemplify her obsession with the ideal female archetype. Something prescribed under The Feminine Mystique. Her constant attempt to resolve and reiterate this dysfunction experienced, has been mediated through her relationship with the table. A power playground.
Throughout this discussion the table has been referred to as: a site for power play, a ‘plate’, a container, a feminist object. A refuge, a homeplace, a positioning device. A signifier of culture, a submissive object. A site with social baggage and a power playground. In all of these identities female artists have used the table as a stage. Marina Abramovic and Zackary Drucker use the table to serve themselves and their bodies. Carrie Mae Weems and Alison Knowles use the table to stage the performance of femininity and construct an identity within that performance. Whilst Judy Chicago and Mary Beth Edelson use the table to stage a rejection of patriarchal imagery. Finally, Sophie Calle and Vanessa Beecroft use their predisposition to obsession to perform ideals of femininity. Simultaneously demonstrating and resolving the power contest between the masculine and the feminine. In all the works explored the table has invited the viewer into the performance. Becoming this stage for the performance of the feminine.
This understanding of the table has been discerned through looking at key theories when it comes to femininity and the table. Wolf highlighting the correlation between women gaining power and the stringent conditioning of female beauty through food control (Wolf, 10). Butler speaking to the performativity of the feminine (Gender Trouble xv) and how that links to ideas Betty Friedan spoke to in The Feminine Mystique. Underpinned by Scharnhorst’s reflection of the refuge and safety the table has provided women (12) whilst ideals of domesticity and heteronormativity prevail. Through this discussion and in using theses theoretical lenses, the table has continued to be used as a stage for female artists to grapple with power and ritual. Female artists demonstrate how the table has an intrinsic link to the way ideals of femininity are presented and served. Their ritualistic return to this table throughout second and third wave feminism enables an understanding that it is a site ’offered’ to women. However, relinquished to them with the caveat of their expected submission to the ideals femininity.
Referring back to The Last Supper and the Bible verse it makes reference to. “Take this and eat it, for this is my body” (New Living Translation Bible, Matthew 26:26). The table is a site you consume. Consume community, consume food, consume relationships, consume the body. Yet in a woman’s expected submission, they are equally expected to to be consumed but not to consume. The masculine dictates this complexity through its role in the construction of The Feminine Mystique. Female artists have used auto/ biography in their work to explore this continuous dialogue with the masculine and ideals of the feminine. Evidenced in Sophie Calle’s statement that the masculine will always be sat at her table (“Pig”). When the table is used as a stage to publicise this omnipresence of masculine, a construction of feminine identity can be disinterred. In conjunction and in spite of the conditions and restrictions imposed on women.
The table based works of Abramovic, Chicago, Edelson, Knowles, Calle, Drucker and Beecroft don’t serve as a rejection of the identities the table has provided historically. They don’t shy away from the notion of consumption. There is an upmost importance to a ritualistic return to the self and auto/biographical experience. As it allows for female artists to consume power. A restatement that they can be in control of their own narrative. This coexists whilst they are being consumed by a society that tells them the female body holds no value. Unless it prescribes to the ideals of femininity. Therefore, arguably there is a seesaw of power play in these auto/biographical table based works of female artists. Hence the discernment that the table is a power playground. In conclusion the knots and interrelationships between power, ritual and the feminine all coexist, play and act on the stage of the table.
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Figure 1 : Bevan, Gracie. Collaged Image of The Table, The Feminine and Power. 2023. Digital Collage.
Author’s Personal Collection.
Figure 2 : badgreeb, “An a la carte approach to dieting emerged in the Sixties”, The Independent, 15 Jan 2018, www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/how-slimming-became-an-obsession-withwomen-in-postwar-britain-a8153406.html , Accessed 24 March 2022
Figure 3: Abramovic, Marina. Rhythm 0. 1974. Installation of Performance Piece. Lisson Gallery, London.
Figure 4: “Marina Abramovic pictured during the Rhythm 0 performance in Naples in 1974”, Culturieuse, 19 May 2021, culturieuse.blog/2021/05/19/marina-abramovic-1946-%C2%A7-rythm-0/ Accessed 24 March 2023
Figure 5: Da Vinci, Leonardo. Last Supper. Tempera on gesso, pitch and mastic. 1495-1498, Santa Maria Della Grazie, Milan.
Figure 6: Edelson, Mary Beth. Some Living American Women Artists. Collage. 1972, Museum of Modern Art, New York.
Figure 7: Chicago, Judy. “The Dinner Party”, 1974-1979. Installation. Brooklyn Museum, New York.
Figure 8: Weems, Carrie Mae. The Kitchen Table Series: Eating Lobster. 1990, National Gallery of Art, Washington. ”Kitchen Table Series,” National Gallery of Art, www.nga.gov/collection/art-objectpage.209288.html#provenance. Accessed 8 March 2022.
Figure 9: Hunter, Alexis. ‘The Dinner Party (International)’.1979. Photograph. The Women’s Art Library, Special Collections and Archives. Goldsmiths, University of London. “Dinner Party Politics.” Kettle’s Yard, 8 Feb. 2019, www.kettlesyard.co.uk/about/news/dinner-party-politics/. Accessed 8 April 2023
Figure 10: Knowles, Alison. Journal of The Identical Lunch. Nova Broadcast Press, 1971. Monoskop. monoskop.org/Monoskop. monoskop.org/images/1/1c/Knowles_Alison_Journal_of_the_Identical_ Lunch_1971.pdf. Accessed 11 April 2023
Figure 11: Beecroft, Vanessa. “The Book of Food”. Two Star Books, Paris. 2006. Front Cover
Figure 12: Beecroft, Vanessa. “Vanessa Beecroft drawing 1993-2007”. Eleanor Pearch Research File, 2014. eleanorpearchresearchfile.weebly.com/body.html. 11 April 2023
Figure 13: Calle, Sophie. The Chromatic Diet: Sunday. 1998. Double Game, by Sophie Calle and Paul Auster, Violette Editions, 2007, pg. 20-21
Figure 14: Calle, Sophie. “Young Girls Dream (Les Autobiographies)”. Burger Collection, n.d., burgercollection.org/artists/120-sophie-calle/works/890-sophie-calle-young-girl-s-dream-from-the-series-lesautobiographies-1992/. Accessed 12 April 2023.
Figure 21: Brooke, Randy. “Kanye West at presentation of Yeezy clothing line, which was conceived by Beecroft”. Artnet, 9 Feb 2016. news.artnet.com/art-world/kanye-west-vanessa-beecroftcollaboration-422693. Accessed 19 April 2023.
Figure 22: Beecroft, Vanessa. “VB Handmade Performance for Tod’s”. Tod’s. n.d. www.tods.com/gb-en/ tods-world/VB-handmade/. Accessed 19 April 2023.
Figure 23: Beecroft, Vanessa. “VB52”. Juliet. 15 March 2023. www.juliet-artmagazine.com/en/vanessabeecroft-the-praise-of-vision-between-fashion-and-sacrality/. Accessed 18 April 2023.
Figure 15: Calle, Sophie. The Chromatic Diet: Friday. 1998. Double Game, by Sophie Calle and Paul Auster, Violette Editions, 2007, pg. 18.
Figure 16: Drucker, Zackary. “The Inability to be Looked at the Horror of Nothing to See”. Art Pulse, n.d., artpulsemagazine.com/darling-zackary. Accessed 12 April 2023.
Figure 17: Drucker, Zackary. “Don’t Look At Me Like That”. Luis De Jesus Los Angeles, n.d., https://www. luisdejesus.com/exhibitions/zackary-drucker-and-manuel-vason?view=slider#2. Accessed 12 April 2023.
Figure 24: Beecroft, Vanessa. “VB52”. Affaritaliani. N.d.. www.affaritaliani.it/culturaspettacoli/le-donneprotagoniste-della-fotografia-in-mostra-alla-fondazione-matalon-761596_mm_842186_mmc_1.html. Accessed 20 April 2023.
Figure 25: Beecroft, Vanessa. VB52. 2003. Mutual Art n.d., www.mutualart.com/Artwork/VB52--Castello-diRivoli--Turin/A3C33B96B33E4DB5. Accessed 21 April 2023.
Figure 26: Beecroft, Vanessa. Untitled (From VB64). Three paraffin wax sculptures on steel tables, 2008. Artsy, n.d., www.artsy.net/artwork/vanessa-beecroft-untitled-from-performance-vb64. Accessed 21 April 2023.
Figure 18: Calle, Sophie. “Pig (Les Autobiographies)”. Burger Collection, n.d., www.burgercollection. org/artists/120-sophie-calle/works/630-sophie-calle-pig-from-the-series-les-autobiographies-1988-2001/ Accessed 18 April 2023.
Figure 19: Beecroft, Vanessa. VB01. 1993. Photographic print of Film. Galleria Luciano Igna-Pin, Milan. www.artnet.com/artists/vanessa-beecroft/vb01-film-YDi7jqGJiSal_rc81jNOPg2. Accessed 19 April 2023.
Figure 20: Beecroft, Vanessa. VB46. 2001. Photograph of Performance Piece. Gagosian Gallery, New York. Vanessa Beecroft: VB46 Photographs. https://gagosian.com/exhibitions/2002/vanessa-beecroft-vb46photographs/ . Accessed 19 April 2023
Figure 27: Beecroft, Vanessa. Untitled (From VB64). 2008. Pinterest, n.d., www.pinterest.co.uk/ pin/34621490865416397/.. Accessed 21 April 2023.
