A disguise for intimate occasions

I sought to create a baffling dress-up based on the imagery of paper dolls with attachable clothing and accessories. In "Ways of Seeing," critic John Berger pointed out that female nudity in the tradition of Western art is usually another form of dress. "To be naked is to be oneself," he wrote. "To be nude is to be seen by others and yet not recognized for oneself." Moreover, he stated, to be nude is to watch oneself being watched.

It was this quote, projected onto the wall of my Junior year Modern Art History class, that first piqued my interest in Berger and led me to read "Ways of Seeing," watch the television series from which it was adapted, and continue on exploring other works of criticism (although they seem more like philosophy to me) by him, as well as his fiction. I still carry "Ways of Seeing" with me--literally and figuratively, given that I've read and watched it so many times it seems strange that these ideas ever sat below the surface of my mind, and also given that I brought one of a copy with me to London. I might not always agree with what he said, yet, more often than not, Berger unearthed intuited truths and thrust them into unambiguous visibility, turning the unutterable into a revelation.

I don't think the drawing itself is very strong. I was trying to play off of ideas that live inside me more than anything else. A woman stands, seeing herself as she is seen. She is incognito. The mask becomes as ridiculous and the shoes and the . . . snail. I used to throw nails into traffic when I was little. I liked to hear the crunch. Is creation always confession? Is it possible to hide through art? Here, vulnerability becomes a shield. Intimacy becomes distance. Self becomes disguise.

Part 1

Part 1

Communication 17 Tasks

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