Cristin Bobee Graduate Thesis Exhibition:
A Seat at the Table
A Seat at the Table
For much of history, Anonymous has been a woman. Oftentimes their story is one that is augmented and told to suit the needs of the person telling the story.
I photograph these women because I am compelled to
I photograph these women because they speak to me
I photograph these women so they can be seen
These women are daughters, mothers, sisters, lovers, idealists, doctors, fighters, righters of wrongs, champions of justice, warriors, artists, scientists, writers, redeemers, leaders, caregivers, revolutionaries, and renegades...
I photograph these women because I need to know them
History is about fragments. Fragments of ideas, theories, movements, wars, and people. This is a celebration of women.
Growing up, I was told about all the men who did great things in history, there were thousands of them. But very rarely did I learn about the women, and when I was taught about their contributions they were often considered insignificant. I learned about Betsy Ross who sewed the flag for the 13 American colonies as a helper for the founding fathers. However, I didn’t learn about Mary Katherine Goddard who printed copies of the Declaration of Independence with the signatures on them, an act of treason if she were caught. I did learn about Cleopatra and how she used her feminine wiles on Julius Caesar, but not that she was highly educated and intelligent. I was told how Marie Antoinette said “Let them eat cake,” when she didn’t, but not that she was married off at 14 to help form an alliance between France and her homeland, Austria.
The title of this work alludes to an art piece by Judy Chicago called “The Dinner Party.” She created a triangle table with 39 place settings for women of historical significance, with additional place settings for 999 more women. Much like the Chicago art piece, there are a variety of women in these pages who have accomplished great feats. Some have written books, while others have taken command of their tribe or country in times of upheaval, while still others have been misunderstood and maligned.
The photographs of these women are not meant to be completely historically accurate, it wasn’t meant to be a historical production. These are portraits. Artists have been making portraits of people for thousands of years. Wealthy Roman citizens had a tradition of having busts of themselves made out of marble to showcase in their homes. Kings, nobility, and the wealthy commissioned artists to paint their portraits as well. This tradition is rooted in power, wealth, and elitism, only those with money could have these works created, only if someone were important. These commissioned portraits were also curated to show the subject as they wanted to be viewed, and less about reality. This project is about using the genre of portraiture while working within the framework of valuing those who were not valued, and showing others through a different lens. The images are meant to have a painterly quality to them. I use the photograph to purposely and intentionally manipulate the image, making the photos look painterly. The costumes, posing, lighting, gaze of the model, photo manipulation, and texture all work together to create a painterly photograph. These images give power to the women portrayed in them, in the same way, paintings done by the old masters were a way to show how much power their wealthy patrons possessed. The process of creating these images is meant to seem like we are looking at actual artifacts of these women, a sense of going back and looking at history through a new lens.