The Swimsuits series, a pictorial reflection on women’s rights.

The Swimsuits series, a pictorial reflection on women’s rights.
By Fleur Spolidor

The “Swimsuit series” is a pictural conversion of the surreal situations women face in society. It’s a series composed of twelve panels painted in acrylics on a collage of recycled materials. The paintings are inspired by real women’s personal stories and anecdotes as well as news articles and historical facts. These twelve women wearing only a bathing suit are the twelve months of the year, the twelve pin-ups in the calendar. They also refer to the twelve labors of Hercules, impossible tasks that need to be tackled. They are represented only wearing a bathing suit because a bathing suit is the exact opposite of a men’s suit of armor, it’s a revealing little piece of fabric that can make women feel insecure for many different reasons and doesn’t offer any protection. It’s also a clear marker of women’s status in the society of their time.  The idea to refer to other work of art in the women’s bathing suits comes from the t-shirt marketing technique in which you display a brand or product on people’s clothes, they become walking billboard advertisements for the campaign. Here the women are advocating for their rights. It’s a series about women’s struggles and hardship, from pink tax to breastfeeding or body dysmorphia. Each panel represents a specific story but dialogues with the other panels, creating a kind of evolutionary timeline of the situations encountered by women. They are painted in acrylic on a textured collage of recycled materials, to upcycle, but also to create a flat, coarse space that cannot be ignored. This contrasts with the idea of classical painting being constructed as windows of a smooth, perfect world. The structure of the background shines through the painted image, marking the female bodies with roughness and imperfection in the manner of passing life that is imprinted in the flesh. I thus offer an unambiguous look at the contemporary woman, imperfect, real and combative.

More info at www.artefleur.com

“This project is made possible with funds from the Statewide Community Regrants Program, a regrant program of the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature and administered by ArtsWestchester.”