Collectivity, Culture, and the Female Gaze
This section explores the power of the female gaze in community and cultural reclamation. Women shift the focus from beauty alone to shared experience, resistance, and cultural identity. Whether through movement, language, or raw physicality, these works amplify voices that are silenced. Their figures don’t pose, they move, speak, disrupt, and connect. Through sisterhood, tradition, and defiance, they redefine what it means to be perceived.
Les Femmes du Maroc: Light of the Harem
Lalla Essaydi
2008
Chromogenic print
60 x 48 inches
Lalla Essaydi explores the intersection of gender, identity, and cultural traditions within the context of Moroccan society. The photograph features women in the intimate space of the harem, but unlike traditional depictions of women as passive objects in such settings, Essaydi places the women in positions of strength and self-awareness. The women are enveloped in intricate henna patterns. The use of henna calligraphy, which she applies to her models' bodies and surroundings, isn’t just decorative. It’s a form of self-expression and communication, something historically controlled by men in Arab cultures. The poetry on her models’ bodies represents a reclaiming of their voices and power, literally writing their own stories, thus allowing the women to speak for themselves rather than being spoken for.
Dancing on the George Washington Bridge II
Faith Ringgold
2020
Silkscreen on silk with pieced fabric border
51 × 50 in
In this vibrant piece, Faith Ringgold reimagines the iconic George Washington Bridge as a site of movement, freedom, and female strength. In her previous work, the bridge has been a longstanding symbol of memory, possibility, and escape, from her iconic Tar Beach to her Women on a Bridge series. Ringgold blends silkscreen with quilting, merging fine art and craft, rooting her practice in African American storytelling traditions. Her work portrays the intimate connection between a group of Black women, using movement as a metaphor for the strength and joy found in female friendship. It showcases the female experience from a perspective that centers women rather than objectifying them.
Dog Woman
Paula Rego
1994
Oil pastel on canvas
47 1/4 x 63 in
Dog Woman is a provocative and unsettling image that depicts a woman in a disorienting, primal pose. In the drawing, a woman with the head of a dog stands hunched over, with her body contorted as if in a vicious, animalistic state. The unsettling fusion of human and animal forms challenges notions of femininity, offering a complex portrayal that invites the viewer to reconsider the boundaries of power, sexuality, and identity. This painting is an example of the female gaze because it forces the viewer, often accustomed to seeing women through the lens of male desire, to confront the woman's agency and individuality, reframing her as a subject rather than an object.