User:Ms.Selam/gap analysis

Gap analysis


Hannah Wilke

Hannah Wilke was born on March 7, 1970 and attended the Tyler School of Art at Temple University in Philadelphia. She is best known as a feminist artist, though she was a teacher for about 30 years. Wilke used photography to show feminism in her art and one of her work that I find compelling is the self portraits of herself in a series: S.O.S. Starification Object Series. The year she started capturing her self portrait began in 1974 and ended in 1982. The medium is Gelatin silver prints with chewing gum sculptures, dimensions- 40 x 58 1/2 x 2 1/4" (101.6 x 148.6 x 5.7 cm, department- photography and the color of her photographs are black and white.

Wilke’s work shows how female beauty is represented. Specially in today’s society, one can find it extremely difficult to just go all natural without fearing to be judged. Wilke’s purpose for her self-portrait art was to inspire and change people’s view on women in a positive way: by transforming the negative materials in to art. My interpretation of the series is that Wilke’s nudity shows how the ideal women should look like to attract others. Yet, on each individual photographs, she’s doing different poses with different clothes and body posture that contradicts the ideal women. For instance, on her top second to left photo, she puts her hands behind her head to show that women do not have to shave all the time to be considered beautiful; not every women likes to shave and they should not feel pressured by media. Women are “supposed” to look attractive all the time and the use of the gum on Wilke’s art shows how people (mainly men) use feminine beauty as an object. Wilke puts gum all over her body and is seen through out the series. She says “I chose gum because it’s the perfect metaphor for the American woman — chew her up, get what you want out of her, throw her out, and pop in a new piece.” I could not agree more with Wilke because I do not think I’ve seen an ad or media that tries to show women’s natural beauty. Also, Wilke’s hair style is different on every photo which shows that every women is different; whether her hair is short, long, or wrapped in scarf, there is much to women than their appearance.

"Sharing StoriesInspiring Change." Hannah Wilke. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Feb. 2016. "Guggenheim." Collection Online. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Feb. 2016.Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 17 Feb. 2016.