Duenne Schlarman

This body of work addresses the societal expectations constructed by cultural backgrounds. Laura Mulvey in her seminal 1973 paper Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema coined the term “male gaze”. It has since been considered a common thread of discourse in the art world. The male gaze refers to three different perspectives of how men interact with art. The artist himself and how they depict women through the years. How men and women are portrayed within the subject of an artwork and how one views the artwork. The male gaze can be attributed to patriarchy because of its inherent inequality.  

 

John Berger states in Ways of Seeing as: “Women appear, and men act” that men act, and women appear. Men look at women. Women watch themselves being looked at. This determines not only most relations between men and women but also the relation of women to themselves. A woman when looking at herself looks through the ideas of how a man would see her. Thus, not only men see her as an object but intern she sees herself as an object too.  

 

This can be equated to the European/Christianity views of Adam and Eve. Women have been viewed as subservient to men. Women are for the pleasure of men and to produce the future generations. They are depicted throughout art history as objects. 

 

My work expands on how the “male gaze” can be turned around on to men. My research further extends this notion to the ideas of identity and how we view ourselves and those around us. I draw inspiration from many artists, such as: 

Roy Lichtenstein, Marcel Ducham, Tracey Emin, Guerrilla Girls, Mary Kelly, Shirin Neshat, Cindy Sherman, Louise Bourgeois, Gerhard Richte, Lisa Yuskavage, Andy Warhol, Yasumasa Mrimura, Cindy Sherman, Hannah Wilke, Barbara Kruger, Catherine Opie, Alice Neel, John Currin, Sally Mann 

My research and work derive from my unique personal perspective and study of established contemporary techniques. The questions that plaque me are as follows.  

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1. Why do artists focus on portraits when working with identity? How has the portrait and self-portrait changed over time? 

2. What is the “male gaze” and is there a female gaze? 

3. How are the postmodern techniques used in a creative and thought-provoking manner in relationship to identity? How do I implicate a similar approach in my art?