Lucy Woodley
The title of the series will be Can I keep my clothes on? as I want to investigate the exploitation of female nudity by male artists and photographers. This series confronts the historical idolisation and sexualisation of the female form within art, photography, and performance. Focusing on how the old white male gaze still profits from the exploitation of female nudity and the female body within the art world. By replicating their techniques through performance, I begin to address the objectification of the female body and attempt to bring equilibrium between the model and photographer, as I am both the subject and creator of the image. I want the viewer to recognise the systematic objectification of the female body by male artists, and how this is still normalised within art institutions today. I am examining the ideas surrounding the male genius within art and questioning whether their methods are genius or exploitation or both. By the repetition of their style, I can investigate this iconic imagery and draw attention to the constructs of patriarchal values. Instead of reproducing the vulnerability of the model I will give them agency, deflecting the traditional homage that the male genius is accustomed to. This is a performative critique that is intended to be the opposite of a homage, using GIFs to further oppose the exclusive nature of what is considered ‘high art’. I want to break down the assumptions made about this ‘iconic’ imagery of the male ‘genius’. I have made a conscious choice to perform within a white studio space to reflect the conventions of the white cube, to remove the male genius from his high pedestal and address the gendered space within the gallery.






Contact Lucy Woodley
- @lucyawoodley