Lover

Penny © Marisa Portolese Click on the image to view a larger version of the work. Date made: 2002 Materials: colour print Measurements: 40 x 50 in./po In the year 2002, I produced a body of work entitled Belle de Jour, which is a survey of 30 large-scale colour photographs depicting women in various states of undress, masquerading different roles. The portraits are carefully orchestrated to present the viewer a world of girls who tease the line of the voyeur. The actors have been choreographed to come forth with a remarkable sense of their own sexual persona through lascivious, subversive gestures and defiant expressions. These images expose a budding female sexuality, and call into question an idealized vision of femininity. Women existing in a state of psychological and physical individuality are presented to invite the viewer to contemplate and explore the underlying tensions between vulnerability and composure, awkwardness and grace, intimacy and detachment, and naturalness and artifice. http://www.ccca.ca/artists/work_detail.html? languagePref=en&mkey=62830&title=Penny&artist=Marisa+Portolese&link_id=10970