"For Your Viewing Pleasure"

2023

Oil on Canvas, Plastic Wrap, Wooden Frame

36" x 48"

I walk through the halls of the MET and cannot help but the feel the unshakable presence of the countless nude or semi clothed women lining the walls around me. Yet, this phenomenon does not occur at the MET alone—I could be in almost any museum anywhere in the world and the experience would be the same. 

Nude idealized and objectified women (who are quite literally made into the object of a painting) have been severely overrepresented in museum institutions, whereas images of assertive women with agency are severely lacking in comparison. For centuries, a woman’s presence in a museum has been about her reduction into a controllable form and her capacity to please viewers, seldom intended to be other women. And due to misogynist conditioning for women’s silence, especially against the things that make them uncomfortable, this tradition has continued.

Thus, therein lies a complex dilemma—how are women supposed to feel safety, inclusion, and empowerment in an institution where the artifacts of their multiple centuries of oppression still hang proudly on display?

In For Your Viewing Pleasure, I attempt to draw attention to and criticize the frequent nude female form in art and the subtle, yet intentionally unsuccessful attempts made by artists to cover their subjects in the name of modesty. The composition features a collage of two different images of a woman, representing the two most traditional objectifying depictions of women in art history—the woman with the seductive gaze aimed towards the viewer, and the headless, limbless (and thus utterly powerless) naked body. The figures have attempted to have been covered with a roll of clear plastic wrap, emulating drapery that is often used to “cover” nude women in art. Yet, due to the transparent nature of the material, it is clear that they were never really meant to be covered at all and their bodies are still on display for the viewing pleasure of the crowd. The rip down the center of the plastic alludes to either the woman’s attempt to break free and claim freedom for herself, or her even further exposure—it is up to the interpretation of the viewer.