Video Analysis Of Mona Hatoum's Body

One of these incidents occurs when Marjane is in art school. When the students were told that they needed to wear longer headscarves, Satrapi immediately responded that “as a student of art…I need to move freely to be able to draw.” She further questions “why is it that I, as a woman, am expected to feel nothing when watching these men with their clothes sculpted on but they, as men, can get excited by two-inches less of my head scarf?” here Marjane questions the restrictiveness of the veil and comments on the injustice in Muslim society and the gender inequality. The veil represent the repressions and the gender injustices in Iran. By revolting against the veil Marjane is able to protest the repressions. On hearing Marjanes complaint, the school administrators asked Satrapi to design her own veil. Marjane accepts this offer while still in the confines of the veil. Marjane designs the veil to suit the needs of the students and

On viewing her work, I am reminded of the traditional art of quilt making, an art once dismissed as “women’s work” but reevaluated by the Pattern and Decoration movement during the second wave of feminism during the 1970’s. Historically quilt makers have used its qualities to communicate political and social messages. For example, the Abolition quilts made during the US Civil war era were inscribed with messages decrying the evils of slavery. However, Gower uses the repetitions of the motifs and tessellations of quilt making practice to draw attention to the excesses of mass

Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood by Marjane Satrapi is a graphic novel that provides insight into a young girl living in Iran during the hardship of war. Persepolis takes place during the childhood of Marjane Satrapi. It gives a background of the Islamic Revolution and the war in Iran. Satrapi attempts to guide herself in a corrupted world filled with propaganda. She tries to develop her own morality concerning religion, politics, and humanity. Satrapi was blessed enough to have high class status and parents who had an open mindset about the world around them. Thanks to her slightly alternative lifestyle, she is able to reconstruct gender norms that society has set by depicting the different ways women resist them. “Do Muslim Women Really Need Saving? Anthropological Reflections on Cultural Relativism and Its Others” by Lila Abu-Lughod is an essay detailing the misconceptions surrounding the veil. Through this essay we can see how colonial feminism, the form of feminism in which western women push for a western way of living on their third world counterparts, has shined a negative light on cultures all around the world - particularly Islamic women. The essay shows how women who don’t conform to American societal structures are labeled as women who urgently require saving. Through this essay one can develop a thorough understanding of the veil itself and the many representations it holds to different entities. Although in Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood Satrapi

One of the most controversial topics concerning Muslim women’s rights is the idea of the veil. It is believed by some Muslims that the veil is an Islamic obligation that all Muslim women must adhere to. But nowadays, the veil can have different meanings that are not necessarily religious. In her article “Reinventing the Veil,” Leila Ahmed addresses some of the different meanings that the veil can have. Marjane Satrapi explores one of those meanings in her animated autobiography Persepolis (2008). In Persepolis, Marjane tells the story of her rebellion against the Iranian Islamist regime that takes over Iran, oppresses women, and forces them to wear the veil. What was interesting to me was seeing Marjane wear the veil without being oppressed, although she does not believe in it, and is being forced to wear it. In Persepolis, Marjane Satrapi escapes being a subject to the Iranian Islamist ideology by establishing her individual identity through transforming the veil from a means of oppression into a means of feminist rebellion.

Abayas, shailas, burkas, and chadors: all are forms of veiling in the Middle East, and all are perceived as symbols of oppression and patriarchy by the West. The veil worn by a Middle Eastern woman is striking and beautiful in its simplicity and elegance. The hijab, the most common form of veiling, leaves only the face visible with the neck and hair completely covered. Onlookers are in awe at the mystery and symbolism associated with the many veils created out of fine, exotic silk. But such notions of oppression and patriarchy often associated with veiling are not only inherently biased and ironic – it would be interesting to explore the symbolism behind a mini-skirt or a pair of five-inch heels, no? – but they are also inaccurate. Although veiling has most definitely been used in the Middle East as a “mechanism in the service of patriarchy, a means of regulating and controlling women’s lives” (Hoodfar, 5), it has also been used as a mode for rebellion and self-expression. Marjane Satrapi, an Iranian woman who grew up during the Islamic revolution, resisted the regime and the universalizing nature of the veil in the hope that she could maintain her individual identity whilst communicating her political ideologies. By examining the way in which the veil is represented in Satrapi’s graphic memoir, Persepolis, while also considering the history of veiling in Iran, it will become evident that the veil is not just a political tool used by male chauvinists; it also presents an

The human body has been coupled with various beliefs for all of history. It has been the centre and representation for questions of ethics, power and sexuality. Works like “Confession” by Linh Dinh have found ways to express these questions further. By focusing on questioning how the body operates in art, Dihn portrays and inquires a whole belief system as to how the body functions and is viewed in society.

This particular artwork could be interpreted as symbolic for identifying a future for sexual freedom of women; women being able to discuss themselves sexually, accept who they are and their individual beauty and the freedom to express female sexuality art, removing the stigma

Despite evident differences in the compositional elements of Picasso’s Les Demoiselles and Manet’s A Bar at the Folies-Bergère, both utilise a composition with a shallow plane to distort visual perception in their work. This distortion promotes the spectator to revaluate the way they perceive these female prostitute subjects. Picasso’s treatment of paint and use blocked colours in Les Demoiselles creates the sensation of a flat, two-dimensional image, signifying a radical break from traditional modes of representation. The lack of depth in the painting pushes the figures of female prostitutes on top of each other, layering the stark angles and sharp forms that make up their bodies. In addition, this layering on such a large scale (243.9 cm × 233 cm) creates a feeling that the figures are pushing beyond the boundaries of the work and imposing themselves onto the spectator. Furthermore, the stances of the prostitutes, who are dramatically flaunting their bodies with arms raised and torsos presented openly, fills the frame, refusing the spectator to accesses to other areas of the image. Instead the female figures dominate the attention of the viewer, in some ways empowering these figures who previously lacked representation. These formal elements of composition all come together in Les Demoiselles to challenge the spectator’s ways of viewing the females in the work.

In Chapter 3 of his book, “Ways of Seeing”, John Berger argues that in western nude art and present day media, that women are largely shown and treated as objects upon whom power is asserted by men either as figures in the canvas or as spectators. Berger’s purpose is to make readers aware of how the perception of women in the art so that they will recognize the evolution of western cultured art.

This is a representation of how the political and religious systems in the Late Medieval Ages treated women as the subordinates of men. It is the woman who attempts to bribe the skeletons with a bowl of coins to try to cheat out of death. None of the other male figures attempt to cheat death. This is significantly similar to the Christian biblical story of Adam and Eve and how it was Eve’s fault for eating the apple and causing orignal sin. The Christian idea and stereotype of women trying to cheat the system and sinning has still be translated through this painting. However, it is clear that the attempts to cheat death are futile and that death has no biases or judgements.

The untitled painting by Riley Samels, a young artist in Ohio, truly sends a powerful message relating to the struggles women around the world face. The painting reflects the way women are treated and how they are expected to behave. The painting is headshot of a woman wearing a bright and bold red niqab; a veil worn by muslim women. At first glance, the observer would assume the artist was simply painting a portrait of a muslim woman. However, when looking closely, you realize the artist camouflaged hands as a niqab.

How has the artist used the body as a subject matter to represent issues of identity ad culture in his/her society?

The idea of traveling from the internal to the external is also visible in Synaesthesia (2016),which featured in the Interlude Gallery exhibition Ideally Yes (September, 2016). Here wax and pigment were placed into plastic bags creating a skin-like material that stretched around the screens. A two-channel video work played on the screens. Born from experimentation with materials, this video also examines the artificial materials with which we surround ourselves. Plastic is at once destructive and terrible for our environment, but also possesses strange, artificial skin-like properties. Through the use of a macro lens, Long and Kai Wasikowski captured different movements and processes of the body in minute detail. These parts of the body took

This piece looks toward the beaten, contorted body of Christ, who is being presented to the people of Jerusalem before he was crucified. This forceful painting was probably an altarpiece. It was meant to appeal to the viewer’s emotions. Inspiring empathy and reverence for Jesus’s suffering. The calm resignation on Christ’s face contracts with the agitated expressions of the other figures in the painting. In this way, the painting offers a means to contemplate our own humanity and Christianity’s ultimate promise of eternal life after death.

One of the main disputes in the battle of Islamic women’s rights is the conflict over dress. According to a popular Islamic leader and Egyptian television personality, the sight of women is so alluring that it can be “intolerably distracting to men” and can “even