Just a few weeks ago, Venice was transformed into a different world. It was carnival and people in masks were strolling through the city. There is a fascination with wearing a mask: one hides behind it and becomes someone else for a time. This also counts for the woman we see on this photograph. A man helps her to put on a mask and her face becomes partially golden, framed with blue feathers. She looks like a fairy queen.
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Putting on a Mask
However, wearing a mask does not only mean becoming another character. It can also cause a split between the woman and her body. In 1881, Thomas Copperthwaite Eakins released a series of photographs. They depict a naked woman shown from different perspectives. One thing that remains constant is her face, which is covered by a dark mask. This mask, however, provides her with another role. It hides her face behind a black curtain, thereby concealing the most individual part of her. Thus, she becomes more an object, her nakedness exposed to the viewer. We can see that wearing a mask can mean that a woman takes on a new role. However, it can also lead to her being degraded and reduced to a mere body, with the mask hiding her face. [caption id="attachment_20875" align="aligncenter" width="1000"]
To Take Off a Mask
In Venice, the carnival was over after a few days. The masks were taken off and people became themselves again, returning to their routine life. But what if the mask belongs to normal life, if wearing a mask is somehow part of a woman’s day? In his poem A Beautiful Young Nymph Going to Bed from 1734, Jonathan Swift describes a process. Corinna, a prostitute, takes off her clothes and body parts such as her artificial eyes. What lies behind her beauty mask is this:Corinna wakes. A dreadful Sight! Behold the Ruins of the Night! Corinna in the Morning dizen'd Who sees, will spew; who smells, be poison'd.Swift describes in a brutally honest way the unmasking of Corinna, the unmasking of her body and of her as a person, too. This poem leaves the reader sad and feeling pity for its protagonist. But now it is time to let an artist enter the stage who has created a painting that does not ask for pity but displays female action.
Revealing a Female Body
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No more Masks?
One can think of any images of a woman’s body: Under this surface, the real female body comes through. Thus, the girls try to free themselves from their prison by unmasking the female body that is hidden behind the empty wallpaper, the empty images. This female body could belong to them or to us viewers. One thing is for sure, it cannot be covered anymore; no more masks for today. Masking and unmasking is about covering and revealing; it is about becoming a fairy queen, being humiliated and also about freeing oneself. With regard to women, it may not be a question if a woman is wearing a mask. Moreover, one has to ask, was it the woman who chose her mask and can she also decide when to take it off?Learn more:
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