Sweet nothings - slides

Permanent Link:

https://ufdc.ufl.edu/AA00001386/00002

Material Information

Title:

Sweet nothings - slides

Creator:

Kahn, Jennifer

Place of Publication:

Gainesville, Fla.

Publisher:

College of Fine Arts, University of Florida

Publication Date:

2010

Subjects

Subjects / Keywords:

Commodification ( jstor )
Commodities ( jstor )
Femininity ( jstor )
Figurines ( jstor )
Gender roles ( jstor )
Male gaze ( jstor )
Missing in action ( jstor )
Objectification ( jstor )
Voyeurism ( jstor )
Women ( jstor )

Notes

Abstract:

Sweet Nothings, a collection of sculptures, offers a new context in which women can be viewed. Sweet Nothings uses traditionally disempowering gender roles found in figurines to reinforce the binary conflict between the power of femininity and its objectification through the male gaze. By destabilizing a male tradition of commodification and voyeurism, my project transforms subjugated femininity into a strategy for subversion. Embellishing human-like characteristics, Sweet Nothings accentuates the muted subtext frequently disregarded in figurines. The figurine is powerless because of her objectness; she was manufactured for display. In the sculptures, the figurine objectifies themselves so unabashedly that they reclaims control over themselves as a spectacle taking full advantage of the viewer by cultivating tension between naïveté and awareness. Embracing Laura Mulvey’s notion of male gaze and John Berger’s female Otherness, Sweet Nothings uses visual routine to change the tradition of power dynamics and gender observation. In my project, Sweet Nothings, the female is a constant “Other. Using this model of spectator and subject, my work addresses this conflict in femininity. Sweet Nothings evaluates the tension between something functioning as intended “bearer of meaning” and the decision to evolve into “maker of meaning.” Positioning artifice against itself allows for new definitions of femaleness. If women are commodities and figurines are commodities, then I want my work to change the meaning of these figurines and by extension redefine femininity. Building on Duchamp’s legacy, I create visual situations of appropriated objects that refuse the convention of commodification. Subverting the way these objects are visually consumed, my work complicates the notion of gender power. The figurines are still objectified, but on new terms.

General Note:

Sculpture terminal project

Record Information

Source Institution:

University of Florida Institutional Repository

Holding Location:

University of Florida

Rights Management:

All rights reserved by the source institution and holding location.

Resource Identifier:

32985596 ( Aleph )
892340550 ( OCLC )

UFDC Membership

Aggregations:

Institutional Repository at the University of Florida (IR@UF)
University of Florida Theses & Dissertations
University of Florida