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January 20, 2008
Helle’s Belle, from the series GUISE, by Deborah Oropallo © 2007What should a powerful leader look like — when the leader is a woman? This question has bubbled up to popular consciousness in recent times especially with the presidential political campaigns of Segolene Royale in France, and Hillary Clinton in America.
In a cleverly titled exhibition, artist Deborah Oropallo, plays with the gender/image issue by interweaving images of 17th and 18th century male-based power portraiture with internet images of sexy women in seductive costumes. The series, called GUISE, is on display now at Gallery 16 in San Francisco.
In the accompanying essay, Anna Lucas writes:
In all the prints, the vast symbolism of classic portraiture is employed, raising issues about gender, costume, fantasy, potency, power, and hierarchy. The artist asks, "Does the popularity of fetish fashion stem from the fact that it makes women appear strong and very powerful?"
Lens Culture is pleased to present several images from Oropallo's GUISE, accompanied by the essay by Anna Lucas, who helped curate a similar show of Oropallo's work for San Francisco's DeYoung Museum in 2007.
Oropallo has been one of the San Francisco Bay Area's most influential artists for the past two decades. She has been included in the Whitney Biennial, Corcoran Biennial, and many museum collections including Whitney Museum, SFMOMA, San Jose Museum.
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The images are interesting to look at but the question posed by essayist, Anna Lucas is pretty dopey. She has an uncanny grasp of the obvious.
I certainly agree with Anna Lucas' question as being pretty dopey. However, I don't think the artist is asking anything, let alone anything related to fashion. If anything there is a reference to the transference of male attributes onto women in positions of power. It's a similar idea of what is addressed in gender studies of things like slasher films. The heroine, in order to defeat the monster, has to use a, more often than not, phallic object. At the same time though, she must maintain her femininity in order to be accepted at all. She can not be 'too male' or she will be rejected outright. Think of it in terms of the 'women's suit'. Suits are generally associated with men and the 'working world' so in order to be accepted into this world, the suit is required of women as well, just with the adaptation of a skirt instead of pants and perhaps a low cut undershirt. This says "You can be a part of this world, so long as you maintain availability for the male gaze". Woo...tangent.