ROME

A contemporary exploration of antiquity.

When going through my photos from the field trip, I noticed that I was photographing the sculptures far more than the paintings. I was interested in what these uber-realistic depictions of humans from thousands of years ago were expressing emotionally, especially the women. They were almost always reclining or relaxed, seemingly incapable of doing much. Anatomically, they were often incorrect and their sexual organs frequently ignored.

As I cut out the images in Photoshop, removing the statues from the gallery setting, I began to laugh. They looked so overly dramatized, as if they themselves were rolling their eyes. I started to re-caption them in my head, and then wondered: what if I actually did re-caption them to highlight the inequity of gender portrayal in antiquity? People don’t often think about the fact that women are lacking genitalia in ancient sculpture – I didn’t think about it myself until fairly recently.

By placing these ancient sculptures in a modern setting with satirical captions, the pieces display the serious issue deeply rooted within our culture while highlighting the utter ridiculousness of it, in a visual medium that is understood by people today. The images are digital and meme-like, but are painted in oil to emphasize the topic’s seriousness and connect back to the classical art that is being scrutinized.