Ali me nočete, ker sem kritična / Do you not want me, because I’m critical

Year: 2012
Technique: series of 16 drawings, ink on paper, 21 x 29,7 cm

In this new series of drawings, I deal with the paradoxical position of women who in various everyday life situations in contemporary society still often encounter disapproval and resistance. Today’s stereotypical identity roles and their (un)acceptablity are conditioned by the male gaze which influences generally accepted standards of behaviour or social status. I have taken different cliché images of women which have been reproduced from Internet-based “stock” photography archives, like the ones frequently utilised in the media and in advertising.

The series was inspired by the comic strip Tinza, which Marko Pogačnik published in Problemi [Problems] journal (No. 83-84, p. 692-702) in 1969. During the sexual revolution, the author treated the visible “subject of woman” from a man’s perspective and programmatically and simplistically dealt with clichés, consumerism, and the imaginary constructs of desire.* The sexy naked woman in Pogačnik’s strip asks, do we not want her, because she loves airplanes, prostitutes, generals, press conferences, glass eyes, etc. The women in my drawings conclude that we do not want them because they are pregnant, naive, depressed, or want a higher salary.

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*Miško Šuvaković, Skrite zgodovine skupine OHO (The Clandestine Histories of the OHO Group, Slovenian edition), Zavod P.A.R.A.S.I.T.E., Ljubljana, 2009, p. 82.