Los Angeles-based artist Rachel Lachowicz has a few works on display at the Denver Art Museum that bring up interesting questions about feminist appropriation of masculine art. For one piece, Lachowicz created small urinals out of bright red lipstick, a play on Marcel Duchamp's "Fountain," in which the French artist turned a urinal upside down and signed his name on it. In another piece--not on display at the Denver Art Museum--Lachowicz cast a statue of David in lipstick. By reconfiguring male-oriented art with a decidedly feminine material, Lachowicz pokes fun at the male artistic cannon. But she also makes a dismal point about society's double standards. While men are judged by the quality of their work, women are evaluated based on their appearances.
In an interview with Art Commotion, Lachowicz expounded on her work. "Part of the reason I use makeup as an art lies in the fact that when people ask me what artists I'm interested, I realized I'm mostly attracted to male artists. I don't appropriate these "masters" because I think they are bad people--I am truly seduced by their role as artists and their innovative production," she said. "I landed on lipstick and cosmetics because they allow for that flipping back and forth--between wanting to be a proper feminist and wanting to objectify myself in the same gesture."
Aside from her appropriated work, Lachowicz has another piece at the Denver Art Museum with a more obvious feminist tenor. In one corner of the gallery, a series of lipstick neckties hang suspended from the ceiling. On the floor is a single pair of lipstick high heels. But if you look carefully, you'll see a bent clothing hanger--a symbol of underground abortion--hanging directly above the heels. Perhaps Lachowicz meant to point out the sacrifices that women must make in order to compete in the male-oriented work world. At one time, no doubt, these sacrifices included illegal abortion as carrying a child to term would have certainly meant professional suicide. -Naomi
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