SILVIA GIAMBRONE
Silvia Giambrone’s work is of a frankly political nature. It highlights and denounces the way in which females are demeaned through cultural models involving their bodies, through the conduct expected of them and by manipulation of their images. In particular, Il danno shows a standard female bodyin babydoll – typically viewed in a condition offering pleasure, erotic charge and seduction for men. It has nevertheless been deformed by an extraneous geometric element, placed at the groin, and by an extrusion at the abdomen, just above the navel. These presences bring to mind, respectively, sanitary pads and prostheses applied to the breasts to make them more voluminous. They compel the observer to see the body of that woman, who is without a face, and so has no identity of her own, as something extraneous to the logic of desire. Ironically, it appears as damage compared with stereotyped expectations. It shows how a small detail can determine a person’s life, conditioning their form, thoughts, time and freedom, while deviation is perceived today as limiting and crippling with respect to the logic of dominion. The photos of Baby dull document a performance created by the artist in a motel where she installed false metal eyebrows, fixing them to the wall with chains. The work, permanently installed a room of the motel, is an invitation to an intimate play of changing perspectives, gender and identity.
