« The women’s identities have become insignificant as their heads are visually cut off, leaving only the bodies in focus: Clearly an analogy for the female experience, clashing beauty, power and violence. The Glass Ceiling project is about the “set up” of being a woman. These women are professional athletes and dancers; therefore, they are dressed for work. In 2008, I was commissioned to do a “fashion” shoot using the US Olympic Synchronized Swim Team as models. Two of the set ups included high heels. Inspired by the shoots outtakes I hired a local synchronized swim troupe in 2010 and directed the women with gestures as I sat at the bottom of a pool in full scuba gear with a state-of-the-art 65 megapixel back on my digital camera. As these athletes attempt to pose for me the water knocks them into awkward positions. The heels are overtly absurd and hinder their movement, amplifying their lack of control in this world. “Glass Ceiling” marks for me the return to the explorations I made throughout the 90’s to depict the female body as if it was directly channeled from the male psyche. In these images, the identities have become inconsequential as their heads are cut off, the sexualized bodies are the focus. As a female artist, I have experimented with imagery, which explores the objectification of women for many years. First, a series of drawings of women as seen by men, just breasts, vaginas, heels, then a multimedia digital piece called “Eve of the Future” which posited that if man could genetically engineer the woman of his dreams, she would have multiple orifices and no head. This work was acquired as part of a collection by SF MOMA. The images channel the feelings I have of being powerless in a culture run by men. The psychic violence is made pictorially overt. The subjects are victimized despite their physical strength, health and any other good luck they might have been born into. The fact that they had the bad luck of being born women makes them a punchline. The violence in our slang and street vernacular used in discussing women and sexual intercourse makes it apparent that the collective male culture feels aggressively dismissive of women. I felt it was important to show the violence and emotion I feel as a woman in contemporary culture, from a woman’s point of view. The images might be read as violent towards women, they are meant to be. This is what it feels like to exist in the female body.»
Jill Greenberg
Since the age of 10, Jill Greenberg has staged photographs and created characters using the mediums of drawing, painting, sculpture, film and photography. She is known worldwide for her uniquely human animal portraits, which intentionally anthropomorphize her subjects, as well as her infamous series, “End Times” which struck a nerve in its exploration of religious, political, and environmental themes exploiting the raw emotion of toddlers in distress. Her newest work marks a return to the postmodern feminist theory that inspired her senior thesis, “The Female Object” as an art student at RISD in the 80’s: “The disciplinary project of femininity” and the predetermined failure of all women who attempt to “succeed” at it. As a working photographer she tries to straddle the line between assignment work and her own personal work. On one notable occasion, a conflict arose when she was assigned to photograph the Republican candidate for presidency in the summer 2008, at the height of his popularity; after delivering the assignment exactly as requested, she chose to speak out in the form of agit-prop outtakes on her own website, which she was legally allowed and morally compelled to do. The violent backlash from her political art has informed on this return to the question of what is tolerated by women in our culture.
EXHIBITION
« GLASS CEILING » O’BORN CONTEMPORARY
Exposition solo – A Scotiabank Contact Feature Exhibition
April 28 – June 2, 2012
GALLERY O’BORN CONTEMPORARY
131 Ossington Avenue,
Toronto, Ontario, Canada,
M6J 2Z6
Tuesday – Saturday
11 AM – 6 PM
http://www.oborncontemporary.com/
REPRESENTATION & MANAGEMENT
PUBLICITE ET EDITORIAL : Jason EASON – [email protected]
ENTERTAINMENT ADVERTISING : Manipulator Productions – [email protected]
PRODUCTION FILM & VIDEO : Robert GREEN – http://www.anothergreenworld.com/
ASIE PACIFIQUE : Red & Raw – [email protected]
/ http://www. redandraw.asia/
SYNDICATION
Celebrity Syndication Corbis Outline
t 310 342 1517
[email protected]
FINE ART PRINT SALES
KATHERINE CONE GALLERY
2673 South La Cienega Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90034
t 310. 287. 1558
/ [email protected]
http://www.katherineconegallery.com/
CLAMPART
521–531 West 25th St
Ground Floor
New York City, NY 10001
t 646 230 0020 / [email protected]
http://www.clampart.com/
O’BORN CONTEMPORARY
131 Ossington Avenue
Toronto, Ontario, Canada M6J 2Z6
t 416 413 9555 / [email protected]
http://www.oborncontemporary.com/
