Melting David proposal and sketches

Michelangelo's David is the perfect example of patriarchy's artistic masterpieces. By recreating this sculpture in melting wood, I am incoporating feminsit sensibilties through a dynamics of fluids to convey a feminist artistic practice of resistance of deconstruction. In order to overturn the traditional phallogocentric idea of the 'masterpiece' and 'genius'.

"Truth is necessary for those who are so distanced from their body that they have forgotten it. But their truth immobilizes us, turns us into statues ...". Irigaray’s response to Jacques Lacan's efforts to arrive at the truth of woman's pleasure not through an appeal to real women, but to Bernini's statue of Saint Theresa located in Rome, neatly introduces my inspiration for this proposal; restricted by the phallogocentric restraints positioned upon our patriarchal society, women have not been able to fully express themselves or their own pleasure.

It is within this context that I propose a feminist art piece that would overturn the idea of the traditional phallogocentric 'masterpiece' and the 'genius' artist, in order to deconstruct these ideas. Michelangelo's David is the perfect man; carved in white marble, it portrays the traditional image of the masculine subjectivity sitting in sovereign judgement over experience. By using this perfect example of patriarchy's artistic masterpieces, I will aim to convey a feminist artistic practice of resistance of deconstruction by recreating this sculpture in melting wood. The aim is to experiment with what it would mean to recreate Michelangelo's masterpiece with feminist sensibilities. I will make visible the meeting point of the properties of physical matter and an elaboration of sexualised subjective identity through the notion of melting wood.

My deviant version of David would stand approximately 200cm(H) x 100cm(W) x 80cm(D). This smaller scale of Michalangelo's David will offer a lifesize relation to the viewer, deconstructing the idea that a masterpiece' scale is unreachable. To ensure that Michelangelo's David remains recognisable, I will not distort the image to abstraction. In portraying the dynamics of melting, the droplets will be carved to drip downwards following the figure’s contours and limbs.

*This blog post has been back-dated for continuity purposes. Skecthes and text were originally done in October 2014.