Olivia Collins
Cindy Rehm
Advanced Drawing
March 31, 2020
My intention for this series was to create 12 pieces that would depict female hysteria. Female hysteria has been a subject for many male artists since the phrase was popularized in the Victorian era. Men have described women showing any emotion or distraughtness as hysteria when this one word does not capture any feelings or conditions of women. My found images are all stills from films directed by italian filmmakers Mario Bava and Dario Argento. Italian horror films from the 1960s and 70s have a distinct color scheme and aesthetic that is artificial and bizarre which I felt would make for more interesting pieces rather using images from the entirety of the horror genre. Horror, more than any genre of films, focuses on female hysteria since the majority of the women in these films are used to being dramatic characters. The women characters are often seen overreacting and the victims of murders and other horrible acts. I was also interested in surrealist artists since these two directors were influenced by this period of art. I was thinking about Dali’s piece The Phenomenon of Ecstasy (1933) where he depicts a collage of women having faces of sexual climax, which was also considered a form of hysteria. I wanted my series to focus more on the emotion of fear and panic. As far as the look of the print pieces, I wanted to keep them as overwhelming accents for the movie stills to be on. I wanted the characters to look as if they were being taken over by the chaotic background. I was somewhat influenced by painter Laura Owens for the scribbled backgrounds, especially when I chose to cut out certain marks to highlight.
The films referenced in my series:
Black Sabbath (1963), Mario Bava
Blood and Black Lace (1964), Mario Bava
Kill Baby, Kill (1966), Mario Bava
Lisa and the Devil (1973), Mario Bava
Deep Red (1975), Dario Argento
Suspiria (1977), Dario Argento
Inferno (1980), Dario Argento
Tenebrae (1982), Dario Argento
Salvador Dali The Phenomenon of Ecstasy (1933)
Laura Owens
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