The Little Black Gallery London promotes the latest series Mail Order by fine art photographer Marianna Rothen.
In Mail Order, Rothen herself is the sultry, sexy subject – an archetype inspired by the silver screen. With a collection of male mannequins, she takes part in a dystopic scenography informed by real-life anxieties around gender and patriarchy, played out against a backdrop worn interiors and natural surroundings.
In her series Mail Order (2017), the female characters of Marianna Rothen’s imaginary universe are shown for the first time in the company of men. Until now, men have remained decidedly absent in Rothen’s images, but it seems as if in the current debate over gender politics, women’s rights and the Me Too movement, it is inalienable not to include men in the (greater) picture. While for a century a male dominated Hollywood has often depicted women as objects and commodities, in Marianna Rothen’s book the tables have finally turned. No man in Mail Order is real, they are all mannequins. As the title suggests, they are like sex dolls, objects, mail order partners. The female protagonist, played by Rothen herself, creates her perfect man and makes him dress, pose and perform his manhood in the ways she demands. By flipping this power dynamic Rothen shows how deeply ingrained the expected roles between women and men and their archetypes are.
THE LITTLE BLACK GALLERY
