CONCLUSION

On the day I am writing this conclusion a confrontation between toxic masculinity and social justice are playing out in real time. In spite of multiple, credible allegations of sexual misconduct and assault, Brett Kavanaugh is poised to be confirmed as a Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States.81 _{And it is not solely men who support this patriarchal} abuse of power.

At the same time, the Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to Denis Mukwege and Nadia Murad for their efforts to fight sexual violence as a weapon of war and armed conflict.82 _Their work, and refusal to be silent on these issues, is heroic.

Reflecting on gendered power historically reveals both the persistent and pervasive treatment of women as sexualised objects. I have attempted to revise ‘the nude’ and reveal the gendered power dynamic of male dominance and female passivity (which privileges a fetishizing male- oriented gaze) in order to make clear that it does matter when the socially and politically dominant voice controls the narrative.

When Serra, Judd and Morris investigate embodied experience as abstract phenomenon whilst employing monumental scale and weighty materiality, which are loaded with masculine authority, they fail to notice gendered differences in our experience as bodies in the world. Due to the ubiquity of objectifying representations (and live experiences) women do not get to walk around those sculptures merely thinking about ‘the body’ in relation to the object in the same way Serra (et al.) do. Women’s bodies are not neutral and autonomous from scrutiny. Works such as Have a Seat and Vitrine made last year reflected my vulnerability. I intended the material defencelessness of the objects to engender empathy in the viewer, or conversely to reveal a lack of tenderness and care. However, I have come to question whether laying these bodies bare repeats the trope of passivity, the ubiquity of which makes it invisible to those in a position of privilege.

81 The Guardian, October 2018, Retrieve from: https://www.theguardian.com/us- news/2018/oct/05/brett-kavanaugh-us-senate-vote-supreme-court

82 The Guardian, October 2018, Retrieve from:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2018/oct/05/nobel-peace-prize-2018-live-updates

The power dynamic encoded in ‘the nude’ persists: in advertising, music videos, and pornography. My intention has been to reveal the heterosexist voice controlling the narrative around the “proper” expression of women’s sexuality. In representing the male body from a female perspective my intention is twofold: to reveal to the male viewer what objectification feels like, and to reflect on the connection between social power and sexuality.

In creating sexualised work I left myself exposed to the possibility of sexist assumptions being made around my sexuality and behaviour. Reactions to my work revealed uncomfortably sexist attitudes towards a woman ‘being sexual’, attitudes shared by both men and women. For women, the experience of being sexualised and yet also shamed for expressing sexuality is omnipresent. For the LGBTQI community, so too is the experience of being shamed for expressing sexuality that deviates from a heterosexist white male “norm”.

One of the reasons I employ humour in my work is in order to reveal these attitudes, and to attempt to rebut and refuse that shame. Shame is a powerful way to diminish and control people.

I discovered in producing this body of work that humour and criticality are not mutually exclusive. Humour and metaphor allow for a more complex examination of stereotypically binary positions – allowing multiple and conflicting emotions to be present simultaneously. Humour is a powerful means of revealing who is in control and expressing dissent.

fig.36

Caitlin Devoy

Pygmalion and Galatea (after Girodet) 2018

Fig.37

Hannah Wilke, “A Very Female Thing”, in Sexuality, p.28

List of Figures: Fig. 1: Michelangelo David 1501-1504 Marble

Galleria dell’Accademia, Florence.

Retrieve from: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Michelangelo %27s_David#/media/File:David_05.jpg

Fig. 2:

Gian Lorenzo Bernini Apollo and Daphne 1622-1625 Marble

Galleria Borghese, Rome.

Retrieve from: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Apollo_and_Daphne_(Bernini).jpg Fig. 3:

Gian Lorenzo Bernini Rape of Proserpina 1622

Marble

Galleria Borghese, Rome. Retrieve from:

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Rape_of_Proserpina_(Rome).jpg Fig. 4:

Gian Lorenzo Bernini Rape of Proserpina (detail 1622

Marble

Galleria Borghese, Rome.

Fig. 5: Praxiteles

Aphrodite of Knidos (roman copy, original destroyed) 330BC (est)

Marble

Museo Pio-Clemento, Vatican City. Retrieve from:

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cnidus_Aphrodite,_Roman_copy_after_4th_cent ury_BC_Greek_original,_Palazzo_Altemps,_Rome_(8737574339).jpg

Fig. 6:

Marcel Duchamp

Étant Donnés (Given: 1. The Waterfall, 2. The Illuminating Gas) (interior view) 1946-1966

Mixed Media Installation Philadelphia Museum of Art Philadelphia.

Fig. 7:

Marcel Duchamp

Étant Donnés (Given: 1. The Waterfall, 2. The Illuminating Gas) (detail, door with peepholes) 1946-1966

Mixed Media Installation Philadelphia Museum of Art Philadelphia.

Fig. 8: Caitlin Devoy Display 2017

Acrylic and vinyl. Fig. 9:

Caitlin Devoy Display 2017

Acrylic and vinyl.

Fig 10: Robert Morris Untitled (L-Beams) 1946-1966

originally plywood, later versions made in fiberglass and stainless steel. Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.

Fig. 11: Robert Morris

Bodyspacemotionthings (video still)

originally 1971, restaged at Tate Modern, London in 2009. Retrieve from: https://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-modern/exhibition/robert-morris- bodyspacemotionthings Fig. 12: Robert Morris Bodyspacemotionthings 1971 Fig. 13: Richard Serra

One Ton Prop (House of Cards) 1969 (re-fabricated 1986) Lead

MoMA, New York. Fig. 14:

Caitlin Devoy Have A Seat (detail) 2017

Fig. 15: Caitlin Devoy Have A Seat (detail) 2017

Wood, acrylic, gelatine. Fig. 16:

Caitlin Devoy Have A Seat (detail) 2017

Wood, acrylic, gelatine. Fig. 17:

Caitlin Devoy Have A Seat (detail) 2017

Wood, acrylic, gelatine. Fig. 18:

Caitlin Devoy

Vitrine (I tremble at your touch) 2017

Wood, acrylic, latex. Fig.19:

Caitlin Devoy Hand in Glove, 2 (detail) 2018

Wood, electrosoft rubber glove Fig. 20:

Caitlin Devoy

Hand in Glove, 1(left) and Hand in Glove 2 (right) 2018

Wood, electrosoft rubber glove

Fig. 21: Caitlin Devoy Hand in Glove, 1 2018

Wood, electrosoft rubber glove Fig. 22:

Caitlin Devoy Dennis 2018

Rubber moonhopper, silicone penis. Fig. 23:

Caitlin Devoy

Dicking Around, still from video. 2018

Rubber moonhopper, silicone penis. Fig. 24:

Linda Benglis Art Forum Advertisement November 1974 Fig. 25:

Carolee Schneemann Interior Scroll

(Image from performance) 1975

Retrieve from: https://fineartmultiple.com/blog/carolee-schneemann-interior-scroll- masterpiece/ Fig. 26: Caitlin Devoy Cream 2018 Silicone

Fig. 27: Caitlin Devoy Cream (soft) 2018 Silicone Fig. 28: Caitlin Devoy Extinguisher 2018 Silicone Fig. 29: Caitlin Devoy

BinJelly (object made for a performance) 2018

Fig. 30: Caitlin Devoy

Eroto-Metronome (Cream Dance) 2018

Acrylic, Motor, Silicone Fig. 31:

Caitlin Devoy

Eroto-Metronome (Extinguisher Dance) 2018

Acrylic, Motor, Silicone Fig.32:

Sarah Lucas

Got a Salmon on (Prawn) 1994

Cibachrome print

Fig. 33 Sarah Lucas

Two Fried Eggs and a Kebab 1992

Table, fried eggs, kebab, photograph Tate Modern, London.

Fig. 34: Sarah Lucas Chicken Knickers 1997

R-type print

Tate Modern, London. Fig. 35:

Sarah Lucas

Self Portrait with Fried Eggs 1996

C-print

Fig.36 Caitlin Devoy

Pygmalion and Galatea (after Girodet) 2018

Digital Image Fig.31 Hannah Wilke

REFERENCES