I started to see me, beyond her…
Reflections after I finished reading Catherine McCormack’s:
WOMEN IN THE PICTURE
Women, Art and the Power of Looking
“So women must not only write but they must make art too, which after all is a way of communicating the things that language alone cannot cover, a way of voicing the complexities that words cannot adequately contain..
… depictions of women’s experiences on their own terms must enter the cultural mainstream in order to give us models and stories against which we can measure and shape our own identities”
I was moved, I was shocked, I was shaken. So much knowledge and important understanding of the power of art, the message it conveys and the ways it can shape a universal message.
I am in awe of the gift of this woman to this world, to me. I am changed, I can no longer be the same after reading her book.
First and foremost thank you Catherine McCormack for your dedication to bringing this book to existence and for shedding an enormous light to an important and neglected aspect of art.
Navigating the book was an adventure that I embarked on with great passion and determination as I myself set off to start a summer course in the European Cultural Academy in Venice. I spoke about the book repeatedly with passion and awe. How could I not see the weight of the perfect woman from its origins in art? How could I not understand the complexity of its implications as a woman that is not perceived as white, but whose own experiences have made me lose perception of my own identity, including that of the color of my skin.
As I entered the most difficult of chapters Maidens and Dead Damsels, I didn’t imagine how this would affect my mental health (which is always on a thin edge of collapsing, due to decades of lack of self-care, lack of healthy boundaries, decades of untreated trauma, and so much more). I fell apart as I evaluated my own experiences as a sexual assault survivor. I was embraced wholeheartedly by a new friend I came to know during my time in Venice, we both had endured sexual assault in silence for too long. Others were quick to follow, with love support and encouragement, all of these were amazing humans that share the experience of being labeled as “females” from the moment they were born and from that point navigate the world in that way whether we fully embrace it or not as the way we want to be understood.
The more I navigated my course in Venice, the more I understood the importance of my own story, my experience in my own art practice and career. This book held me by the hand and reinforced the things that I knew deep inside me, my life journey and experience with mental health is important and necessary for this world, for others to evaluate their own lives and the centuries of history with only one side being revealed.
I am grateful beyond words to this book, this author and the time when I read it including all the people who happened to be around me during the 10 days I spent in Venice. I am looking forward to continue to share my journey now with this blog.
I purposefully did not go into the detail about the book as I feel it is a must read for everyone and anyone.
I will only leave you with a quote that comes from the Epilogue and which is the perfect way to understand this book:
“ The way forward is not through censorship of the art of the past that offends our current feminist sensibilities but by interrogating it and taking the opportunity to rethink the stories that have shaped our understanding of power and gender and race. We need to think about the language we use to discuss and judge art in less divisive and inflammatory ways. Hopefully this book has provided some awareness of the nuances and complexities that inform our currently antagonistic debates about objectification, pornography and rape culture, about decolonisation; about gazes and what it means to see and be seen, and the privilege and power behind who is allowed to look, as we all work out new ways to leave behind those limited archetypes that blinker and distract us. Art and culture can afford us more ways to approach the complex persona, social and political realities our world and, with the contributions of more than one group, they can be ours to see more clearly”
