DESIRE (2012)

I worked on this painting to explore my thoughts and feelings about the concept of desire and the treatment of feminine aspects of human nature. The central image is a woman’s torso that is also a large male face. I made this to express my feeling that the feminine body is treated as a central object of man’s desire. I deliberately gave the body no face in order to de-humanise it, representing the way some men do not perceive woman as human beings, but only as objects. The red faces outside the body represent a range of masculine attitudes and behaviours towards the feminine, treating it as something to be "had”. To many men, woman are a complete mystery; the feminine world is a complex and intangible phenomenon not really understood, but very desirable, creating a need for it to be owned, taken or controlled.  The masculine stereotype expresses a tendency to focus on an object of desire and take it, whereas the feminine stereotype has difficulty expressing desire or even admitting to it.

In some societies women adhere to cultural norms that inhibit them from expressing their sexual desire; they are expected to arouse desire, but not to be able to feel it themselves. I made portraits in every part of the female body to represent the fact that woman (as an individual human being) may experience sexual desires but these may not be accepted or freely expressed in certain cultural groups or societies.

This inner tendency is played out as a social reality: masculinity is a symbol of the outward aspects of life and control or dominance of the physical world, whereas femininity symbolises our inner world. It seems that humanity assigns greater value to these tangible outward masculine aspects of life, but does not value in the same way the intangible inner feminine aspects of our lives. Yet psychologically we crave these inner aspects. The way this plays out socially is that men express this inner need through their tendency to lust after females in the physical world. In contrast, women tend to adorn themselves as decorative objects in order to attract attention.

The final thing I wanted to say about this painting is that it has a deeper meaning relating to masculine and feminine aspects of personality.   Many people find it very difficult to get in touch with the feminine aspects of themselves. They have great difficulty recognising and expressing their emotional wants, needs and desires, not just sexually, but about anything. As a result many people are trapped in unhappy situations that they do not want, because they are emotionally blocked and find it difficult to express what they really want in their lives. If people cannot get in touch with their own feelings it means they cannot channel their emotions effectively or constructively. This is a very big problem in our world today. Perhaps it is little surprise that there are so many psychologically disturbed people, relationships breakdowns and social conflicts.