09. Body Ownership in Art: A Contemporary Context Presentation

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Due to the overt sexualization of the female body throughout art history, contemporary female artists have had to confront both current and historical sexualization through acts of body ownership. My work is most closely related to contemporary painters who draw from narratives of female experience, more specifically, those relating to significant women’s issues including sexualization, sexual assault, abuse, and sexuality. In exploring these issues, my process largely includes transforming my own body into an instrument to paint with, which allows me to be both author and subject rather than just, historically speaking, the object of sexualization. My body prints are symbols of self-ownership and act to reclaim the female body in art. This body of work is socially as well as personally motivated and draws upon influences from the feminist art movement of the 1970s, while at the same time incorporating elements of contemporary and pop visual culture. My goal for the work is to serve as an advocate for women and women’s issues that go wholly unnoticed or do not receive the attention they should.