Shouting of pleasure and protest
Friday, 21 July 2017 23:11
Written by Liliana Ang
During orgasm, our body is prey to involuntary movements, ecstasy deforms our gestures and the strange rigidity that inhabits us has much in common with horror. Orgasm is indeed a little death [1]. In painting, I represent the sensations surrounding orgasm in tiny scales, with the intention of creating an intimate relationship between the painting and the viewer. This scale refers to the medieval paintings made for private oratories, that depicted saints and virgins. This series claims the female body and pleasure as our own, an action deemed necessary in a world in which women's bodies are constantly territories on which men decide, attack or destroy. Appropriating our own pleasure and representation is not only an intimate and personal action, but also a political and subversive one.
[1] Little Death is the translation of the French term petite-mort, which colloquially means orgasm.
During orgasm, our body is prey to involuntary movements, ecstasy deforms our gestures and the strange rigidity that inhabits us has much in common with horror. Orgasm is indeed a little death [1]. In painting, I represent the sensations surrounding orgasm in tiny scales, with the intention of creating an intimate relationship between the painting and the viewer. This scale refers to the medieval paintings made for private oratories, that depicted saints and virgins. This series claims the female body and pleasure as our own, an action deemed necessary in a world in which women's bodies are constantly territories on which men decide, attack or destroy. Appropriating our own pleasure and representation is not only an intimate and personal action, but also a political and subversive one.
[1] Little Death is the translation of the French term petite-mort, which colloquially means orgasm.