West
Spotlight Artist
Klaire A. Lockheart
West
Artist Statement
Flipping the binary doesn’t solve all the problems of the
objectification of women in art, but it does provide an entertaining
start. I use humor to inspire viewers to consider that passive
representations of women for the heteronormative male gaze are
neither natural nor universal. In response to the abundance of
dehumanizing imagery I am expected to appreciate for art’s sake,
I invented the brodalisque. These oil paintings feature masculine
men who recreate the poses and passivity of historical odalisques.
Western orientalist painters typically portrayed odalisques within
the harem, a place where unrelated men were not allowed. To
update the trope of creating a “realistic” painting in a prohibited
space, I place my subjects within the hidden mysteries of what is
known as the man cave. I render these forbidden environments
representationally to persuade the viewers that these
compositions are factual and not at all fictitious. If the original
odalisque paintings that I reference really truly are about form
and aesthetics, not sex and ownership, then these paintings are
completely serious and not remotely silly.
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