If we approach art as more than a pretty picture, the idea of a stretched linen canvas becomes only part of a broader perspective. The notion of art as something deeper and further reaching transforms the art medium from something outside of the artist to something radiating from within. In the case of artists Frida Kahlo, Marina Abramovic, and Cui Xiuwen, their art is born not from a desire to create a visually pleasing image, but from a yearning to translate experience and outlook. The “canvas” becomes their very lives – stretched out on frames traditional, contemporary, and unconventional alike.
Though they present their art in ways vastly different, there is a common ground upon which they stand. It is not only their gender that ties them together, but the way their reveal their experiences as women in their female portrayals. Cui Xiuwen, the most recent of the three, is perhaps the most subtle in her methods. Though the work she creates does not directly feature herself, she speaks loudly of who she is, that which she sees, and all that she opposes. She features her own life as a girl growing up in China, surrounded by women battered and bruised by societal roles. She projects her own empathy and experience for such issues onto the form of a schoolgirl – multiplied and varied, cut out and pasted into various environments in her digital images. Works such as “Ladies Room” speak more explicitly about the roles women play, bringing to light issues that may be taboo, or at least difficult to look at.
Like Xiuwen, Frida Kahlo also took her life experiences and reflected them in her art. Though in a more traditional form, her self-portrait paintings can be seen as Xiuwen’s approach taken a step further: for instead of using a designated figure, Kahlo utilizes her own image, transferring the chaos and pain of her physical self onto her painted self. Paintings such as “Without Hope” and “Ford Hospital” serve as her voice and her biography, reflecting the physical and psychological hardships she endured in her personal life. The story of her life – though depicted in a form surreal, poetic, and often grotesque – is evident in the progression of her work.
As compared to Xiuwen and Kahlo, Marina Abramovic’s self-portraits/female portrays take a different direction. She takes her experience, perspective, and feminist approach to a new level, for Abramovic is both the subject and the medium for her work. While working with a great deal of time-based, photographic and performance pieces, she makes her own body the canvas upon which she experiments. Abramovic’s projects are mostly ephemeral in nature, but they leave a lasting impact – an aftertaste that often leaves one feeling uncomfortable and uneasy. If we view such works as either a translation of personal experience or response to societal issues (in manners similar to Kahlo and Xiuwen), then Abramovic is obviously not only projecting them onto herself, but actually reliving them. By taking on a certain role or even testing the limits of pain, she places all these issues upon her own body. Abramovic makes herself as a victim and a martyr, especially when it comes to women in traditional female roles (“Portrait with Potatoes” and “Homage to St. Therese” being two such examples). Whether she speaks for herself or for women in general, she succeeds in not only featuring herself, but actually using herself – giving the “self-portrait” a new meaning entirely.
While some artists have chosen to use trials and pain to inspire hope and change, others have chosen to work within darker areas. Whether that is done to deal with pain, relate to others, or simply for shock value – one cannot say for sure. But one thing is certain… be it on canvas, computer, or body… who we are and what we believe shines through the art we create.
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