'Body Politics' explores feminine symbolism
Published:Sunday | July 20, 2014 | 12:00 AM
Keisha Hill, Gleaner Writer
Throughout the centuries, the female anatomy has been featured in many art forms as artists represent the female body in different, but captivating ways. Recently, young artists, during the Kingston on the Edge Urban Art Festival (KOTE) 2014, showcased paintings, drawings and sculptures encapsulating the diversity of the female body under the theme 'Body Politics'.
Jaw-dropping, to say the least, was Sandra Green's intricate drawings of the female genitals that explored the issues of female sexuality both forcibly and subliminally. Green's fascination with the female body started in her third year at the Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts. She started working with sugar because women over time have been compared to its sweet taste. However, her fixation then moved into hair and, more specifically, female genital hair.
"It started from a class assignment and I wanted to do something that really connected with me. The work became more personal and I tied it into a woman's 'sweetness'. The hair depicts socio-political baggage, a type of stereotype based on how women are viewed in the Jamaican landscape," Green said.
To this end, Green's work has evolved into what she calls an 'iwomancipation' project, where she is developing and exploring more complex issues relating to feminine symbolism and other metaphorical emblems.
"Many women are subject to abuse because of their genital area. It appears as if we always make ourselves available through our body language," Green said.
Nathanya Walker also shares similar ideologies in bringing awareness to the overly sexualised and exploited female body. She puts into context the different shapes of the female body, specifically the black female, as they encounter certain experiences and consciousness.
Finding one's sexuality
"It seems many black women are trying to find their sexuality. They are unaware of how their behaviour portrays them in the society, and at the end of the day, they often forget the hardships our foreparents faced and how women were treated during slavery," Walker said.
"It is as if they are still enslaved spiritually and physically, and seem to want to validate their behaviour in the way they express themselves. They have not learned from our history as black women. They think out of context and do not appreciate the past or envision a good future," she added.
Using bright colours and repetition, the mixed mediums in her paintings seek to restore some dignity to the many women who have been objectified and exploited.
Other artists at the exhibition included Shediene Fletcher, who showcased women in our society today, the mixed views of her friend's thoughts on women and her own confusion on the role women play.
Shanique Brown presented the deconstructing of the female body within western society; the fat female body becoming the subject matter. "There is a social as well as aesthetic issue with what is considered the ideal female body. The ancient Greeks and Renaissance held the view that the human body should personify 'perfect' forms of balance and symmetry, culminating in equal proportions. Once such a harmony had been understood, then the ideal construct of beauty in the form of the body could be achieved," Brown said.