Our Very Busy writer Michaela Hall, has created a great piece here have a read and see what you think…
The gender generation
There are certainly still existing stereotypes, behaviours, and biases that women in 2023 face as a result of societal politics and it’s easy to get carried away with these and let them diminish the progress of women’s representation. It’s also easy to forget to look back and appreciate change and what is different now, good, or bad. Artists who identify as women have always had to contend with the fact that they’re female and quite often have chosen to make work addressing this. Three years ago, Haus-a-Rest was born, and since then we have continued to look at the growth of artists whose work covers a wide variety of issues, so three years on – where are we now, and what has changed for women in art?
If we journey back to International Women’s Day in 2020, the United Nations theme was "I am Generation Equality: Realizing Women’s Rights”. This represents a year in which the elephant in the room, Covid-19 failed to squash the acceleration of women’s success. The first-ever female Vice -president of the US was elected, Scotland made period products free for all, two women took home the Nobel prize in Chemistry and New Zealand appointed its first indigenous woman Foreign Minister. Among these examples (and many more out there) this marked a shift in attitudes towards women, where women were being given a platform greeted with much more attention and respect than in previous years. This was directly reflected in the art world, where women artists were striving to represent women powerfully through their creativity.
Hiba Schahbaz, raised in Karachi, and now living in Brooklyn is a perfect example of this presentation of power. Her large and striking paintings are powerful depictions of female strength and beauty. Schahbazs’ work “depicts women’s bodies often referencing self-portraiture, creating a space for herself and other women to tell their stories and reclaim their histories.” In ‘Angel’ (Left) (2020) and ‘Roots’ (right) (2020) we see two women represented in a way that is almost biblical in its stance. We have bold and proud nudity in environments that suggest peace, power, and elegance. The women depicted in the images appear importance and the clear focal point of both images, with their backgrounds fading away from the eye with ease.
The appreciation of women that is depicted in this work and their power is something that has continued to grow in terms of representation in the art world. So where are we now?
In 2023, years on from this starting point – we’re in a turbulent political and social period where women are fighting more confidently for their rights against violence, bias and prejudice. The power of women discussed from 2020 has now turned into a powerful movement in which gender is a key topic globally and very important generationally to developing creatives and political thinkers. This has of course, resulted in some fiercely powerful artworks from women over late 2022 and early 2023 that challenge the way gender is thought of.
Japanese Artist Edi Matsumoto recognises the importance of diverse powerful representation of women in the arts. Of her Goddesses and Warriors series, she commented: “After centuries of oppression of the female gender, presently, we are witnessing movements for women to stand up, speak up, and fight for our rights, life, and the future of Mother Earth. My artwork celebrates our accomplishments and encourages us to recognize our divinity and courage to continue making the world a better, safer, and accepting place where there will be no gender, racial, or economic inequality”. In her work ‘Giving Hope’ (left) we see a female doctor depicted in a composition that at first seems quite traditional of portraiture, until we realise that women are never typically depicted in this portraiture format in high respected occupations such as this, the focus is normally on their beauty rather than their achievements. Thus, Matsumoto is challenging the history of the female gaze and what we value in portraits of women. Similarly, in ‘La Guerrera’ (right) we see a portrait of a powerful tribal-esque styled woman who is striding confidently forward through the water. This is a clever contrast in that the woman is in a bikini and ‘pretty’ setting – yet is filled with confidence, masculine energy and power to detract from that – again challenging us on our perceptions of gender.
There is still undeniably vast progress to be made in the space of women’s representation both societally and in the arts but what both artists show is that there is a clear journey of increasing confidence, power and diverse representation of the woman through previous years, continued into 2023. We’re in a time where gender of all kinds has much more exposure in mainstream media and political debate, where female artists are increasingly referred to without the ‘female’ tag, a powerful gender generation which refuses to be silenced.