Original artwork description:

40 x 80 cm, paper and acrylic on handcrafted canvas, 2023

Theorized by Laura Mulvey in 1975, the "male gaze", or "male gaze", is defined first in cinema then in other forms of art as the way in which men appropriate female bodies: camera which lingers on the legs, buttocks, chest, different lighting between male and female characters, gratuitous and exclusively female nudity, etc. The male gaze is established according to a simple equation: the male director makes his film, produced by men, for a male audience. The theory goes even further since it accuses this male gaze of conveying messages such as rape culture, especially when the woman resists for a while before giving in and finally enjoying the embrace. Sexual assault is cool in the end!
In this painting, I only used male faces from different types of art (cinema, comics, painting, literature) whose gaze constitutes the very skin of the woman who hides behind her sheet to avoid as much as possible to undergo this evil gauze.
Initially, I was going for something completely different for this work. It was inspired by the graphic novel “Peau d’Homme”, by Hubert and Zanzim (2020). Without having read it, I immediately loved this principle of having "man's skin" to go out on the street. I wondered what it would be like to be able to go outside without stress, without being harassed, spied on, without being afraid and being completely free.

Materials used:

Paper and acrylic on canvas

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