Creative Writing
A box of sheer creativity and wonder, a carnival of colour, shimmer, and glow. Forward thinking and innovation, shapeshift and hide. I am consumed by all yet no two will see me the same. No matter how strong I am I always seem to break and when broken I am always forgotten and replaced. I can provide endless confidence but don’t get too consumed or all I will deliver is endless self-hate.
We were tasked with beginning the process of writing with this prompt. I have always found creative writing difficult and putting yourself into the mindset of an inanimate object was quite challenging. However, with this came a flow of writing that would prove useful for the research that we were given to do. I chose the thing that was right in front of me, a makeup palette and focused primarily on the positives and negatives of makeup in general to try and make the object distinguishable.
Betty Tompkins- Feminist Art
The works of Betty Tompkins are heavily inspired by her abusive past relationship with her misogynistic ex-husband. Her work features the extreme contrast between the “idealistic” domestic scene and images heavily laced with profanity, pornographic images from her husband’s collection of magazines and graphic depictions of sexual acts. Her work has a soft focus with a hyper-realistic style to create her depictions of both male and female genitalia, contrasting with her type heavy style which covers most of her work. Tompkins often crops out faces and other identifying anatomy in order to remove the presence of race, time, identity and humanity. In my opinion this creates a much-needed depiction of the absent mindedness of abusive relationships and rape that victims often describe. Her work is often known to spread across walls and have a large expansion in order to incapsulate the audience and transport them into the mindset of those that she paints.
Between 1969 and 1974, a series of eight ‘Fuck Paintings’ were created using an airbrush, building upon layers of black and white acrylic paint to depict close-up shots of penetration. Monochromatic and striking, her paintings were used to delve into the sexualisation of women in her era and how they were desired only in a “trophy” sort of way. She reopened her galleries in 2002 and asked women of a new era to send words that were often used to describe women in a derogatory fashion, thus her type ridden work was created; showcasing the remaining issue of misogyny in a modern world.
In my opinion her work is important to showcase the remaining fear and threat that women still feel in a progressive society. Women are still seen as inferior to men in many ways, thus making the works of feminist artists who take back the sexualisation of their bodies and make it into a celebration and symbol of female oppression so paramount for youth of today’s generation. Feminism is of upmost importance in contemporary art and the use of simplistic font covering traditional roles of females is something that anyone could understand and relate to. This is why Tompkins work can reach the masses, her simplistic and shocking value to her art employs the viewer to consider the harsh and very real issues that she puts across in her works.
Paula Rego- Abortion Rights
Rego’s work reflects a referendum to legalise abortion in Portugal, which was very narrowly defeated. In her response the the works she created in this series she states that her work “highlights the fear and pain and danger of an illegal abortion, which is what desperate women have always resorted to. It’s very wrong to criminalize women on top of everything else. Making abortions illegal is forcing women to the backstreet solution. I’m doing what I can with my work but both men and women need to stand up to this. It affects men too. You don’t get pregnant on your own do you?” Each piece depicts the disturbing scene of a young woman going through the life altering process of an illegal or “backstreet” abortion. It is in her view that the topic of abortion needs to be normalized for the safety of women in both a physical and mental state.
Rego recalls when opening her gallery to the masses she heard the whispers of women discussing her work. It is her belief as a feminist that these issues need to reach the wider world in order to destigmatize abortion and protect the lives of vulnerable women. Her works have a large reachability due to the controversial topics of her paintings and with the feminist movement being at an all time large they are the topic for discussion among many.
As a woman I think that she raises important issues in her work and drives the harsh and shocking reality of the dangers women in a society where abortion is frowned upon and still up for debate. The simplicity of her style allows for the message to be effectively delivered to any critic of her works. This is why the effect of her work is so instantly shocking, this is the type of artwork that helps to drive the feminist movement forward.
