The consciousness raising group
Glazed stoneware, 2017
Photographie Alain Leprince / Roubaix, musée La Piscine
This work was created on the invitation of the museum La Piscine in Roubaix, to create a work inspired by one of the pieces from their collection. I was immediately drawn to Camille Claudel's sculpture ''Les Causeuses'', representing three characters carefully listening to a fourth one, their bodies stretched out as if not to lose a word of what is being said. While this sculpture diverges from the usual passivity of the traditional representations of the female body, I was shocked by the three titles given to the work, ''Les causeuses'', ''Les bavardes'' or ''La confidence'', all seeming to downplay the seriousness of their conversation.
I set out to make a sculpture which would mimic the original composition and to find a title that could shift the first interpretation that the viewer might have. In connection with my personal work, I used ceramic as medium and molding as technique. I chose the Barbie doll as a model, which is another stereotypical representation of the female body. In this new scene, the protagonists try to contort their rigid bodies as best they can to reproduce the complex postures of Camille Claudel’s work. The new title, ''The consciousness raising group'', echoes to a practice developed in feminist circles in the United States during the late 1960s. Women formed discussion groups aimed at promoting collective awareness of the systematic nature of their oppression. With this title, all of a sudden the viewer has reasons to believe that these innocent looking Barbie dolls are perhaps not engaging in mere chit-chat, but might actually be planning a social revolution.
Views from the exhibition Nage Libre, Anciens Abattoirs, Mons, Belgium
