Spend some time with empathy.
Vera Barnett’s offering to the University Gallery’s newest exhibition, M Path, is one of exposure to our society’s haunting inability to honestly confront the sexuality of young women. Trace the dizzying pattern of Victorian era roses forward to the cloying mid-20th c. sweetness of white hearts to arrive at our contemporary love affair with plasticizing and debunking women and emotions. If it isn’t the plastic blowup doll, it’s our plastic communication devices. All of which give us a distance with which to encounter our emotions, let alone feel them.
Barnett’s doll is given lifelike concerns over protecting herself from our voyeurist gazes (no longer just “the male gaze”) or conversely the young woman has been rendered plasticized and pliable, the better to collapse or grow according to another person’s breath.
Look at her eyes, though. When looking at the painting in person, you can imagine her calm resignation showing up in the shadows that outline her eyes. There is no naivety here. There just might be a chance to evolve from mere plasticity to flexible resilience and honesty.
digital studio 