Pop Quiz! Name five women artists… I’ll wait.
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If you could genuinely name five woman artists, congratulations I'm proud of you. But this simple task is much harder than it should be - why?
Women have never been truly treated equally in the art scene. Museums, galleries and auction houses all fail to treat female artists with the same regard as their male peers. An analysis of 18 major U.S. art museums showed that a shockingly high 87% of their collections are created by male artists. Women also occupy only 30% of directorship roles in museums, earning 75¢ for every dollar a man makes (which does not bode well for my dreamed career path.)
It’s so much harder to name five female artists rather than male artists because we do not show and celebrate feminine art. Whether it’s because we deem it as less worthy of praise or not memorable enough, we neglect to acknowledge women artists daily.
I’ve never felt totally encompassed by the term ‘feminine’. It’s a suffocating term full of expectations and it stifles expression.
To an extent, to be feminine is to be wanted, desired even. The concept of the divine feminine exists from the pursuit of being worthy of being pursued. To be perfectly feminine you must pay an exorbitant amount to; get your hair done, maintain a fresh manicure, stay in a male determined idea of fitness, and scrub yourself daily to smell like whatever fruit you could imagine.
Now do men actually care if you smell like a vanilla bean or not? No, or at least I hope not.
Even the concept that women only strive to achieve divine femininity to impress and arouse the opposite sex makes us seem like birds of paradise who prick, prod and prune until they are immaculate enough to impress a potential mate.
The whole concept of femininity and female identity in the history of art was, and is, formed by men. In theater women were played by men, names of women were removed from books, and the female body was imagined from the masculine and hetrosexual view. Women were not welcome to be, they were dictated how to be.
Bambou Gili is a NYC artist who has exploded in popularity on the contemporary art scene. I can see why she is so popular. I cannot seem to look away from the vibrant cool tones of blue, green and purple that seem to hypnotize the eye. Her themes of self pleasure, isolation, comfort and feline companionship (my personal favorite) resonate with the contemporary viewer.
In her work you find feminine figures lounging, relaxing and just enjoying the simple moment that Gili has created. They are not ashamed, nor are they shy. I see myself reflected in these figures. Unlike classical art I am not a woman who has porcelain white skin, marble smooth complexion, symmetrical assets. I am not a woman created by a man - I am a woman created by me.
I see an older version of myself in these women. I can imagine being in my 20 somethings in an old run-down cheap apartment struggling with over-looming stress and expectations. I also see a more confident version of myself, a me who has become comfortable in my own version of femininity.
Gili’s art does not show who women ought to be nor who they have become expected to be – but rather who they are. Her women are comfortable with just existing for themselves.
“I used to wake up from vivid dreams pretty regularly, and I would write them in my bedside journal in the dark. They weren’t always legible, but it was fun trying to piece them together in the morning. Sometimes, they were really weird, which was great for inspiration.” - Bambou Gili via The Wildest
I see you in my dreams. In my dreams of undefined femininity. In my dreams of representational art. I see these colors in my dreams, I see the figures and landscape there too. I yearn to exist there with the women, in a state of comfort and fulfillment.
The perfect word to describe Gili’s art is no other than dream-like.
Not only a visual dream, but a dream of concepts.
Bonus Section
If you would like to be sad and existential for the rest of the day Here are some more depressing facts about gender inequality in the art scene.
Always be Optimizing by Jia Tolentino is the most memorable essay I have ever read. I know there is no reference to this in this newsletter but the majority of my concept of ‘divine feminine’ derives from Tilentino’s definition of ‘optimizing’.
“The freedom I want is located in a world where we wouldn't need to love women, or even monitor our feelings about women as meaningful—in which we wouldn't need to parse the contours of female worth and liberation by paying meticulous personal attention to any of this at all.” - Jia Tolentino, Trick Mirror: Reflections on Self-Delusion
*I would like to note that I use dual pronouns. Both They/Them and She/Hers. I do not identify with being a woman, nor do I identify fully with being non-binary. Instead I exist somewhere in-between. I present more traditionally feminine so I identify, and experience, the pressure that femininity creates.*
Sorry for my sudden two week absence, its mid-terms (YAY *depressingly*). Rather than focus on my fun essays here I must focus on my essays that will be graded.
I promise that it will probably happen again.