Voluntary Tortures
French artist, Annette Messager was born in 1943, and
began collecting photographs in the early 1970s. She collected photographs from
magazines, to then go and create a series of 81 photographs called, Voluntary
Tortures.
These blackand white photographs depict women undergoing
various kinds of cosmetic procedures such as breasts being 'shovelled into
suction pads, thighs massaged with electricity, face peelings and more extreme
kinds of plastic surgery.' Most of these images a very disturbing, and
uncomfortable to look at for a period of time. All the procedures look very
bizarre, and use just as weird looking contraptions to carry out the procedure.
Some of the images don't look too abnormal,
for example the images of women wearing face masks. But others look almost
torturous, and seem to be causing more pain than it’s worth. But obviously
because these images were for using in magazines, the model needed to advertise
the procedure, not show its horror. They needed to smile to the camera, even if
they had a neck and head brace on, or being strapped down. Companies would want
them to look comfortable, to encourage women to want this procedure doing to
them. But I can't image with images of these contraptions would make any woman
want to try them out. Annette, rediscovered the prints of this pioneering work
of feminist art in her studio, making possible their first-ever publication The
artist discusses the creation of the series in an accompanying essay.
The series of work, I think was very well named. Women all over the world pay to have surgery to change their body in some way. This is very much voluntary, and slightly like torture on their bodies. These images show, even in the 1970s, women were using drastic measures to create the 'beautiful woman' in themselves. Technology has advanced a lot since the 40 years of these images, but women still go through a lot to create their "perfect" image. Plastic surgery has become the norm, and isn't an alien concept as it once was.
I want to take the idea of voluntarily having procedures, or just going through a daily task of applying make up to make them feel more confident, in my own work. I don't think women think about what they are doing daily to their bodies/faces to create the look they want. The amount of make up products that could be applied just in one application, can be vast. I want to further look at women relationship with make up, and their application to look "beautiful".
