NARELLE DELLE BAITE

Wine, Lace & Woman #1 - 4

In the wine glass images, a portrait of a 45-year woman is presented in a wine glass with four different treatments. This image is designed to raise the question of what makes a woman? The wine glass symbolises society (not women). Another social setting for ideas and discussions, suggestive of a viewer consuming imagery of women and altering cultural attitudes and expectations of female beauty.

The female identity is a key identifier in the images with a focus on the devaluation of women in their bodies in Western societies.

Modern media, marketing and advertising, have reduced women to a fragmented object that is to be viewed and used. This view of fragmentation, where women have become accustomed to viewing and analysing their female self and bodies as fragments evaluated separately, for example, eyes, nose, hair, breasts, often experience anxiety and despair as a result from the scrutiny. Research indicates there is a danger to viewing a person by dividing them into subject and object, yet this is how women are defined—impacting women’s potential.

Lace has long been associated with femininity. The judgements of female bodies in parts devalue women and damage the female psyche and female spirit. By approaching female beauty as parts, the truth of female natural beauty is rejected. The lace contextualises the message – we are talking about female subjects.