Painting lecturer Pip Dickens suggested looking at the concept of gendered nouns in other languages, for example in French and the possible link between brutalism and femininity:

http://archieturbanisme.canalblog.com/archives/2014/07/19/29958158.html

Above is a link to a French article on brutalist architecture. Interestingly l’architecture brutaliste is feminine, but is also known as brutalisme. The article describes le béton (French for concrete <masculine>) as ‘brut’ meaning gross or ugly. 

“L’échec en Occident des projets d’implantation de « communautés fonctionnelles » dans les ensembles urbains à architecture brutaliste, (notamment en Grande-Bretagne), a jeté le discrédit et sur l’idéologie et sur le style architectural et sur le matériau qui l’incarnaient : le brutalisme architectural, partant d’un matériau “brut”, le béton, devient synonyme de « brutalité » économique.”

So the final form is feminine, but the raw material is masculine – the material is ugly but the form has a beauty –> interpretation of the internal and exterior? 

https://paddy-hartley.squarespace.com/face-corsetsThe idea of your exterior as a façade/mask for the interior self. (links to Brutalist architecture as a form of armour, whilst simultaneously leaving its inner mechanics on view).

Where is the line between the external and internal self? How does this relate to the physical and mental manifestations of femininity/womanhood?

-> Paddy Hartley’s work on facial corsets:

Henry Tonks, ‘Portrait of a wounded soldier before treatment’, Deeks case file, 1916-17, pastel. Courtesy of the Royal College of Surgeons of England.

(http://ampersandmagazine.com.au/feature-articles/the-portraiture-of-loss/)

Paddy Hartley, Arthur Frederick Soole (http://paddyhartley.com/soole)

Commissioned by the Gillies Archives. Created work interpreting facial reconstruction surgery with soldier’s uniforms. Lead to Hartley thinking about female plastic surgery and what could occur if there were no surgical techniques:

Paddy Hartley, Face Corset, white cotton drill, 2002 (https://paddy-hartley.squarespace.com/face-corsets)

Whilst Hartley produces high-fashion face and neck corsets, he is now also exploring medical uses of the corsets combined with bioactive glass to help reduce facial scarring.

More importantly for me, he has created a physical mask/shell to encompass his internal self. The mask in part represents desired ideals of beauty whilst also emphasising their literal and societal construction. 

Paddy Hartley (fashion name: Patrick Ian Hartley), image from his ‘Glimm’ collection, (https://patrick-hartley.squarespace.com/glimm-with-catherine-day/)

Short history and explanation of Brutalist architecture:

https://www.architecture.com/Explore/ArchitecturalStyles/Brutalism.aspx

Brutalist-style sea defences referenced in my drawing so far; an armour or wall against the raging sea -> link to sketchbook ‘beauty as armour’

source: http://colinkirby.com/2013/02

source: http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/775461

Untitled #90, 1981

Untitled #93, 1981

Untitled #94, 1981

The 1981 Centrefold series (some of which pictured above); commissioned by Artforum magazine. Plays on male erotica, but displays varied and disquieting emotions – challenging the viewer and creating the feeling of a peeping Tom. In the work Sherman takes on the role of both the photographer (assumed male) and the subject (assumed female) – http://www.moma.org/interactives/exhibitions/2012/cindysherman/#/4

Kiki Smith Tateshots:

http://www.tate.org.uk/context-comment/video/tateshots-kiki-smith

Lying with the wolf, 2001, ink on paper

Rapture, 2001, bronze.

Other notable works include ‘Pee Body’ (1997) and numerous prints and drawings exploring the transition from girlhood to womanhood as well as historical references to the interrelations between men, women and nature