Untitled Women (2021–2023)

The photographs in Untitled Women come from a 1935 English edition of Woman. An Historical Gynæcological and Anthropological Compendium. The book was first published in German in 1885 by Hermann Heinrich Ploss and was revised and enlarged by later editors. It describes female physiology from an anthropological viewpoint and is illustrated with hundreds of photographs of naked women and children from around the world, gathered from a variety of sources.

The women are presented as exotic specimens, their bodies scrutinized and classified in detail. The images and the study are marked by a mixture of sexual and epistemological desire, concealed behind the veneer of legitimate scientific inquiry.

In Untitled Women, I cover each photograph with translucent paper. Only the women’s eyes remain uncovered through a rectangular hole cut in the paper. The original images were made for detailed assessment of the women’s bodies; now you can’t see them clearly. The closer you get, the less accurate the image of the body becomes, with the structure of the translucent paper obscuring the view.

I wanted to change the purpose of the original photographs. I turn the attention to the women’s eyes and the power of their gaze. Now they are looking at you. How does it feel to be looked at?

Read more about Untitled Women in an interview with Art Düsseldorf Magazine.