Grotesque Beauty in the photographic series
by Daria Barkova
by Daria Barkova
Daria Barkova is an artist interested in research as a way of an artistic approach driven by curiosity in tandem with reflection and analysis. Undergoing her artistic education in London she leads her discussion through the lens of contemporary critique, re-acknowledging social and political factors that construct beauty standards. Raised in the UK her artistic practice was greatly influenced by the generation of Young British Artists who emerged in 1988.
Classical beauty in its old perception had almost entirely disappeared from artistic reality at the beginning of the twentieth century. Art is no longer interested in delivering an image of natural female beauty, nor does it aim to obtain any sort of amusement. It teaches us to interpret the world through different eyes, to enjoy a return to archaic or esoteric models, the universe of dreams or the fantasies of the mentally ill, the visions provoked by drugs, the rediscovery of material, the startling re-presentation of everyday objects in improbable contexts. Sarah Lucas (born in 1962), was one of the leading artists from Young British Artists. Her works used critical humor to highlight the absurdity of well-established notions such as the role of women in art.
Being an heiress of the Pop Art movement Sarah Lucas enhanced ideas of commercialization of life and art. An image of a beautiful woman was commonly used for advertisement, rather than aesthetic purposes. The image of the "ideal woman" became so overwhelmingly important because it is conceived by the multi-contextual public. In male culture, women are deliberately positioned as just decorum. Sarah used this notion of decorum in her sculptural work "Pauline Bunny" (1997). Lucas stuffed variously colored pairs of tights with cotton wadding to make forms, whose limply dangling arms and passively lolling legs provide a representation of abject femininity.
Photography and videography are very known mediums for a lot of feminist art. Within the feminist performance art in the 1960s and 1970s, women's performance emerges as a specific strategy that allies postmodernism and feminism. Women used performance as a deconstructive strategy to demonstrate the objectification of women and its results. The same effects are simply not achievable in any other medium as artists often use their bodies as the key idea and medium.
The images that Daria Barkova has created may seem erotic and sexual for some yet the notion of humor and ugliness also echoes through the rest of the costume. Daria's imagery portrays a woman who "absorbed" a man not with her beauty, but rather with her "artful ugliness".
The artist is interested in the investigation of the theme of female beauty through reflections of her own body. The notion of theatricality in here images intrigues the viewer and refers to the act of roleplay and performance. The male model in photographs manifests himself as a passive and weak-willed creature, which contrasts with how a man is usually represented in Western art tradition. You can't see his face because of the mask, but his body is bare and naked. By changing the roles of a man and a woman, Daria Barkova portrays herself in a male-associated position: strong, imperious, and dressed! The male model is an appendage and extension of me. In some shots, their bodies merge into a mass of humanoid forms creating a tactile and textured form. The materiality of the props plays a big role in the imagery: beige tights create that strong link between Lucas's sculpture.
Anna Richards
10.04.2023
Being an heiress of the Pop Art movement Sarah Lucas enhanced ideas of commercialization of life and art. An image of a beautiful woman was commonly used for advertisement, rather than aesthetic purposes. The image of the "ideal woman" became so overwhelmingly important because it is conceived by the multi-contextual public. In male culture, women are deliberately positioned as just decorum. Sarah used this notion of decorum in her sculptural work "Pauline Bunny" (1997). Lucas stuffed variously colored pairs of tights with cotton wadding to make forms, whose limply dangling arms and passively lolling legs provide a representation of abject femininity.
Photography and videography are very known mediums for a lot of feminist art. Within the feminist performance art in the 1960s and 1970s, women's performance emerges as a specific strategy that allies postmodernism and feminism. Women used performance as a deconstructive strategy to demonstrate the objectification of women and its results. The same effects are simply not achievable in any other medium as artists often use their bodies as the key idea and medium.
The images that Daria Barkova has created may seem erotic and sexual for some yet the notion of humor and ugliness also echoes through the rest of the costume. Daria's imagery portrays a woman who "absorbed" a man not with her beauty, but rather with her "artful ugliness".
The artist is interested in the investigation of the theme of female beauty through reflections of her own body. The notion of theatricality in here images intrigues the viewer and refers to the act of roleplay and performance. The male model in photographs manifests himself as a passive and weak-willed creature, which contrasts with how a man is usually represented in Western art tradition. You can't see his face because of the mask, but his body is bare and naked. By changing the roles of a man and a woman, Daria Barkova portrays herself in a male-associated position: strong, imperious, and dressed! The male model is an appendage and extension of me. In some shots, their bodies merge into a mass of humanoid forms creating a tactile and textured form. The materiality of the props plays a big role in the imagery: beige tights create that strong link between Lucas's sculpture.
Anna Richards
10.04.2023