Femininity and Feminism
Nüshu (女书)
Nüshu is a mysterious female script, a unique cultural phenomenon in human history. Nüshu is derived from Chinese characters, but is logographic; it has a strong sense of flow, is long and rhombic, graceful and delicate, a curious shape.On the back of the coin '雕母钱', issued during the Qing dynasty, the words 'All women in the world are sisters of one family' are cast in Nüshu characters.
I was moved by the sense of female community that it embodies for women in ancient China.
“Nüshu.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, October 31, 2022. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N%C3%BCshu.
Liu, Fei-wen. “Heroines of Jiangyong: Chinese Narrative Ballads in Women's Script.” NAN NÜ 12, no. 1 (2010): 172–74. https://doi.org/10.1163/156852610x518309.
Leonor Fini
Fini also painted many nudes, aiming to praise the androgyny and femininity of the subject. Her paintings are semi-transparent and dreamy, as if they emanate a faint sheen from the inside of a shell. I particularly like the closed eyes and separated faces in The Blind Ones. The space horizontally divided by the soft printed fabric creates a sacred interplay. Lissa Rivera, the curator of her exhibition, says that for her, gender and sexuality are the greatest way to experiment as an investigation into the human psyche, both on the canvas and in real-time.
“The Blind Ones” (1968).
Genesis Belanger
Genesis Belanger makes ceramics pigmented in pastel hues and chubby shaped. Her sculptures are incredible reproductions from everyday life. She is good at using nail polish, lipstick and other feminine elements to make the whole work full of absurd reality, and become a disturbing allusion to the seduction and gazing that a woman will face.
Miriam Cahn
Cahn's nude human figures - women and children - are always anxiously silent in the frame. The presence of the hands is an important veil, and although the purpose is not apparent in the expressions, I can still feel the artist projecting a dichotomy of private/public, subject identity/social detachment. As a woman, I always keep a distance from my own body, with a semi-judgemental perspective of a spectator. The soft lines that trace the shapes are certainly a visual representation of femininity.
