Sex and the Citizen: Interrogating the Caribbean

Reflections on She Web

Reflections on She Web Susan Dayal In 2000 I was invited to contribute images of my artwork to Small Axe, then published by the University of the West Indies Press in Kingston, Jamaica, for a special issue entitled “Genders and Sexualities.” I was excited about being included, and I looked forward to seeing the result of this kind of collaboration. My artwork in the period 1989–99 dealt with women’s attitudes toward their bodies and their images as women. I cannot neatly categorize this work, but these pieces consist of wearable sculptures, or costumes, accompanied by self-portrait photos in which I am wearing and performing the costumes. The process of making the costumes and taking the photos with a self-timer provided an opportunity for self-reflection and self-exploration. These costumes and photos are meant to give the viewer some insight into the private struggles that women face when dealing with body-related issues. I endeavored to weave parody, playfulness, humor, and seriousness into these images. The costumes represent some of the stereotypes into which we as women either fall or are forced. The photos document our negotiation with these roles, revealing how we sometimes resent them and sometimes embrace them. In some of the photos I am nude beneath my handmade costume. This was an aesthetic as well as a conceptual consideration but not a social consideration . Many people were shocked, titillated, or somewhat offended by the nudity, which prevented them from seeing the work for what it is. In fact, the UWI Press felt obliged to censor me and did not want to print the issue. Four of my images were intended to be featured in this issue of Small Axe. The cover image was one from the series Miss Universe as a Pin-Up. The press was offended by the prosthetic breasts made of clay. In the end, the image did appear on the cover, but with text over the nipples. The other three images were from the series She Web. These were blackand -white images in which I am nude, wearing, posing in, and sometimes Portrait of Susan Dayal performing Miss Universe as a Pin-Up, a costume consisting of a crown made of wire, human hair, and butterfly hairclips and a dress made from black cord with prosthetic breasts made of terracotta. (Miss Universe as a Pin-Up © 1999 Susan Dayal, photo © 2010 Noritoshi Hirakawa/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. All images courtesy Susan Dayal) 138 Susan Dayal wrestling with the costume She Web, which is a wire corset. The images of She Web were meant to appear in a foldout, but although the foldout was printed, it was not inserted into the issue. My personal feelings of discomfort and rage about being sexualized from a young age were the impetus for this body of work. Looking back on it now, I realize that by initiating the whole process—making the costumes, photographing myself wearing them, and then showing the work to the Self-portrait of Susan Dayal performing She Web, a corset made of 18-gauge galvanized wire. (She Web © 1999 Susan Dayal, photo © 2010 Susan Dayal) Torso with head, headpiece, and costume, no arms and no legs, made of 18-gauge galvanized wire and 26-gauge sheet aluminum. (Third Eye Flowering 4© 2007 Susan Dayal, photo © 2010 Susan Dayal) 140 Susan Dayal public—I forced myself to deal with these issues. The controversy surrounding the Small Axe issue contributed to and marked the conclusion of that chapter of my artwork. For the 2005 piece entitled These cages cannot hold us, I went back to the starting point, to She Structures, the piece that inspired She Web. She Structures is a series of five wire torsos depicting women of varying ages. With She Structures, I was responding to the rape and abuse of women in Trinidad. The torsos were meant to serve as protection from violation; they are densely woven, the nipples are accentuated with copper wire, and the genitals are represented by a codpiece of serrated sheet copper. Cages was a series of ten wire torsos, all built over my body. The wire was more loosely woven than in She Structures, subtly describing the nipples and without genitals. Some of the wire was rusting. As I was making Cages, my thoughts were of something more...