The image below is the call-for-entries flyer for a gallery show in nearby Costa Mesa:
“Man and machine”? Are we to understand that the sexualized cyborg babe qualifies as both the man and the machine? Not human, not even woman; a convenient female assemblage of fetishistic flesh and prosthetics. Love that belt—is that the lock of a chastity belt or the metaphorical ‘lock’ of the always-available female? And it’s not enough to propose a union of art and the graphic novel; apparently it has to be a marriage, with all the conventionalized baggage of that state.
The statement of “Exhibition Intent” continues this line of thought:
“Artists will address the idea of man’s manipulation of biological and mechanical systems and their convergence in an improved and customized physiology: the perfection of the species.
I’ll spare you the rest of the futuristic drivel, but the key question appears towards the end of the intent statement:
“Can we, for example, design the perfect mate?”
I’d say the “answer” to this silly question is right there in the ad…
Full info, including show blurb, at the Grace Lane Gallery website.
Wow, that is pretty horrifying. Looks like the same comic book consumers that laced my high school comic memories with images of unrealistic, nippled female “superheroes” are now waxing philosophical.
This reminds me of Anne Balsamo’s book “Cyborgs of the Gendered Body,” where she argues that the revolutionary potential the cyborgs is pretty mired in cosmetic surgery, sci fi, and gendered discourse. (There’s probably more to it but it’s been 5 years and it deserves a reread.)
What do you say we stage an intervention of some sorts? It is right here in Costa Mesa. 🙂