I dart through traffic crossing Park Avenue on my way to work, shaky from hunger. I count the hours since my last meal, praying I’ll cross the cursory 15 hour threshold required to maintain my intermittent fasting schedule soon. Conventional knowledge in 2018 might espouse the near-end of female body image issues, with chants of “love yourself” and “every body is beautiful” filling the air of this era. While I know that a portion of my beliefs regarding self-image are in fact the product of the society I was raised in, a deeper part of me knows that intermittent fasting helps with my mental state, provides focus and yes, makes my body less soft. Maybe in being a harder version of myself, I can feel stronger against the external forces I encounter in daily life. My decision is, as much as it can be, my own.
Florencia “Fitz” Duran, of the well-known Uruguayan artistic duo Colectivo Licuado addresses the incredibly personal nature of self-image in her most recent work, completed earlier this month in La Bañeza, Spain. Curated by ArtAeroRap, the large-scale mural, which covers one entire side of a building’s facade is titled “Yo Elijo”. Spanish for “I choose,” the work symbolizes the artist’s empowering statement that “I choose, I choose over my body, my sexuality, my present, and future.” There are so many cacophonous viewpoints all espousing the “correct way” for a woman to regard herself. Perhaps it is time to allow every woman to handle it for herself.
Upon first viewing the article, it’s easy to immediately perceive how it conveys a message of sexual liberation. A woman is shown lifting what looks like a dress made for comfortable lounging over her head, revealing what I would reasonably identify as a somewhat idealized body. Her breasts are round and full, her abdomen defined, and her waist-to-hip ration constituting the coveted hourglass figure. These exposed parts of her body comprise the traditional monikers of sexuality, and it certainly seems significant that they are the only portions we are able to see, save for her lips and wrists. Her left wrist features a tattoo of the work’s title, “Yo Elijo” is written in a minimalist script.
Several, less obvious aspects of the mural allude to the themes of control and autonomy that the artist describes though. The feathers covering the woman’s external sexual organs serve not only to accommodate society’s ideas of “decency” for a work in the public space, but also to allow the woman a sense of propriety amongst her vulnerability to the elements. Duran’s choice of feathers here seems to create a purposeful dichotomy, one of softness embodying a sturdier sense of protection. Furthermore, in noticing the way that the moment holds her dress, the viewer realizes that she alone decides how much we see. At any second, she can pull the dress in either direction, over her head to render herself fully exposed, or abruptly dropping it to return to a place of covered coziness. In this moment though, we are unable to see her eyes. Though we may know her body, we absolutely do not know the woman.
“Yo Elijo” was completed in Duran’s signature style, mixing clean, realistic figures with simple backgrounds for an easily lovable final product. Though her work with Colectivo Licuado show’s Duran’s mastery of both male and female figures, the work available on their website does show a slight bias towards depicting female characters. The pair’s website list’s a mission “to investigate and combine the culture and tradition of a particular environment, with their own aesthetics.” This goal is completed with “Yo Elijo” which addresses the international issue of female empowerment, in terms of unblinking autonomy for half of our society’s population. I pick up a peach from a street cart, and sit down at work to devour it. After walking in the hot sun on an empty stomach, I savor its sweet taste to the end, not because I need to or because I “should” but because I want to.
Florencia “Fitz” Duran: facebook | instagram
Colectivo Licuado: website | facebook
ArtAeroRap: website | facebook | instagram
