Semester Project

For my semester project I created a series of collages based on the themes of patriarchy and the male gaze. I posted these collages onto a tumblr blog called shecollage. I was inspired my other female collage artists, whom I also included into the blog. The artists I mainly was inspired by were Hannah Höch and Annegret Soltau. These artists also explored the same themes that I did in there works. Although I wanted to explore other themes in my collages, the overwhelming images I found in magazines all correlated with exploiting the sexuality of of females and promoting themes of patriarchy and male dominance. I hope to continue this blog and continue to post works of other female collage artists, as well as my own.

Hannah Höch

Annegret Soltau

Hannah Höch

Annegret Soltau

BODY PARTS

My collages are divided into three parts. The first part, is called Body Parts. I called it Body Parts because the four collages focus on how the female body is exploited in magazines. A majority, if not all, of the women in these magazines are objectified. The lips, the eyes, the legs, the breasts are all just body parts, and yet magazines (and media in general) portray them to be extremely sexualized to satisfy the male gaze. Males have all these body parts as well, but they aren't exploited like the ones of females. 

SELF-DECEPTION

The second part is called Self-Deception. The goal of this series of collages was to show how our patriarchal society controls women and their image of themselves. I included words that symbolize and are examples of how men get into women's heads. Males expect women to please them and thus as a result, without ever realizing, women live and see things the way men want them to. Females are deceiving themselves in this way. 

MANIPULATION

The third part is called Manipulation. These two collages are similar to the ones of part two. They are exploring the theme of deception and manipulation, and make it seem like the female is in control but it's really the man who is in control, which reinforces the idea of male dominance once more. In the magazines that I looked at, there were many columns or articles advising women how to please men, or how to control men. While looking at these advices it made it seem as if the women was dominant or had power, but really it was the man who was forcing a women to think and act this way.

BIBLIOGRAPHY 

"Top 10 Collage Artists: Hannah Höch to Man Ray." AnOther. 14 Jan. 2014. Web. 21 Apr. 2015. <http://www.anothermag.com/art-photography/3318/top-10-collage-artists-hannah-hoch-to-man-ray>.

Hudson, Mark. "Hannah Hoch: The Woman That Art History Forgot." The Telegraph. Telegraph Media Group, 14 Jan. 2014. Web. 21 Apr. 2015. <http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/art/10545071/Hannah-Hoch-The-woman-that-art-history-forgot.html>.

Soltau, Annegret. "Annegret Soltau." Annegret Soltau. Web. 21 Apr. 2015. <http://www.annegret-soltau.de/en>.

Special thanks to Cosmopolitan (May 2015 issue) and Harper's Bazaar (April 2015 issue) for images used for collages