I don’t get it
Last night Unit London (a Mayfair gallery) posted a picture of a naked female sculpture called Julia (2017) on insta made by a male artist called Ted Lawson (see link https://www.instagram.com/p/B4qJTXwlzDz/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link)
Someone commented on it saying they thought it was fine and she’s not being sexualised (I currently don’t have the energy to unpack THAT) but I am more curious as to WHY a grown man (born in 1970 so he must be around 50 years old now) is choosing to create a sculpture of a young naked female? What is this sculpture actually bringing to the art world? What is the thought behind it? There are literally MILLIONS of subjects one could make art about, so WHY has he chosen to make a sculpture of a young naked female? Are we in the 18th Century ? Can he not think of anything else to make work about? As a white male artist, he is literally able to produce anything that will most probably be highly regarded within the art world, so why not use that platform for something useful? Unit London also captioned it ‘“Julia”, the incredible and brave new sculpture from rising star Ted Lawson. Crafted from silicone, urethane, epoxy, stainless steel and synthetic hair.’
How is it brave? He’s not doing anything new! As a final year art student hoping to work in the creative industry - I seriously don’t get it and it makes me not want to work with galleries like this, especially ones who endorse the same old shit, why not bring something new to the world!!!!!!?
https://art-sheep.com/art-sheep-features-ted-lawsons-bizarre-figurative-sculptures/ - again - why are they all naked women? DO SOMETHING DIFFERENT
It makes me wonder if Unit London was run by women, would they be posting and endorsing work like this cos they did have an exhibition called 21st Century Women in Oct 2018 which was curated by two female curators, Fru Tholstrup and Jane Neal (which I didn’t see btw), but other than that and this quote on their site:
“Unit’s team are young and forward-thinking in their attitudes to women as well as to the art world. They have embraced the opportunity to host an exhibition of all female artists, curated by two women, as a means to highlight the imbalance within the art world.” - Fru Tholstrup
I don’t really see how it’s progressive in terms of exhibiting more new art by a wide range of artists and less 18th century naked female bodies created by men type art, it feels so much like it’s stuck in 18th century tbh. Unless there’s a lot of thought behind it and something that I’m not seeing I don’t understand / don’t get it / if the answer is ‘it’s art so it doesn’t need an explanation’ that is wrong in this case cos if ur a man and u wanna make a naked female body in 2019 that’s questionable and u as a man should be questioning yourself as to why u decided to make it or alternatively
https://theunitldn.com/about-us/
https://theunitldn.com/whats-on/20
https://giphy.com/explore/dont-do-it
