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| Erotique Voilée, 1933 by Man Ray |
In 1933, Man Ray made a series of photographs using the artist Meret Oppenheim as a model. In this series, entitled Erotique Voilée, Oppenheim stands nude behind an enormous printing press wheel, her left arm, which is covered with ink, held up to her forehead. The left hand and arm are soiled and impure, but her gesture maintains an ambiguity between the warding off of further insults and a proud display of her stain.
As a representation of a female artist in the role of a model, made by a male artist, Man Ray's photograph is at the center of a knot of considerations which entangle gender dynamics within Surrealism. In this enigmatic photograph, Oppenheim's eyes are downcast, half her face in the shadow of her ink-covered arm, which gestures palm out at the viewer. Around her neck is a simple black hoop that appears to be made of rubber or some similar material. Her pubic region is obscured by a blatantly phallic wooden handle which protrudes from the printer's wheel in front of her.
The work is representative of the ongoing dynamic between men and women in Surrealism.
Observo a mesma desconstrução na peça, talvez a mais emblemática de Ray,
The Gift (1921), onde, ao ferro de engomar, objecto do quotidiano, representando o universo feminino, suave, se acrescentam algumas tachas (pequenos falos) na base, subvertendo a função do objecto, que se transforma em algo agressivo, masculinizado.
