Defeating the Male Gaze in Art: An Interview with Artist Carol-Anne McFarlane

It has been thirty years since the anonymous feminist group the Gureilla Girls showcased their poster asking: “Do women have to be naked to get into the Met Museum? Less than 5 per cent of the artists in the modern art sections are women, but 85 per cent of the nudes are female.” But has anything really changed?

The male gaze, namely the depiction, sexualisation and objectification of women from a masculine perspective and for the pleasure of the male viewer, remains hugely dominant in the art world. The Art Newspaper reported that of 590 major exhibitions by nearly 70 institutions in the U.S. during the period 2007–2013, only 27% were devoted to female artists. Similarly, a recent data survey carried out by the Public Library of Science found that of the permanent collections of 18 prominent art museums in the U.S. of over 10,000 artists, 87% are male, and 85% are white. Therefore, the prevailing narrative within major art collections comes from a male, predominantly white perspective, thus continuing to perpetuate a male perspective of women.

Viewing women as targets might not seem like an obvious place to start in the battle to change perceptions of women as both the artist and subject of art but Carol-Anne McFarlane’s art aims to encourage the viewer to question the role the patriarchy and the male gaze plays in our perceptions of women. McFarlane’s series entitled Targets, depicts women as two-dimensional black silhouettes in a series of traditional hypersexualised poses, all of which have a target emblazoned on them.

Targets aims to begin a discussion around how we view women’s bodies, not just in art, but in society. The collection explores the sexualisation and sexual assault of women both by viewing them as targets but also by presenting these women as two-dimensional monotoned silhouettes which depicts the disengagement of society to these issues. The linear images portray a stripping of one’s humanity and the objectification of women which is classically how women are viewed in patriarchal society.

For Carol-Anne the main derivative to her artwork, as with all artists, is her own personal experiences. “Experiences like catcalling, street harassment, and being in the boy’s club” became the starting point for many of her creations she says. Creating upon themes of gender and the issues that she has faced as a black female artist, despite having a clear feminist rhetoric, is indistinguishable from creating art that spoke to her personal experiences.

But of course, she also thinks art like hers can serve as an important educational tool to reflect upon the socio-political context in which it’s created. “Art can be a catalyst for change. I have observed people take different action as a result of the art that they encounter. I want to make art that creates positive change in the world, art that shares my story, encourages critical discourse, and creates connection” she explains.

But clearly art doesn’t always enact the same response in its audience as intended by its creator. As well as being a catalyst for social and political awareness within the audience, it can also be a horribly stark wake-up call on just how necessary its creation was. Carol-Anne recounts one such eye-opening reaction to her ‘Targets’ collection. Whilst displaying the collection at the Lauderhill Arts Centre in Florida, one male artist, with whom she shared the gallery space, expressed his distaste towards her artwork, claiming that work of this nature was not art and didn’t have a place in the public eye. “The work so disturbed his sensibilities, his chauvinistic Christian perspective” Carol-Anne explains. In reality, however, “the art centre where this all took place was not far from where I lived, in the middle of catcalling and street harassment… I was bringing the behaviour that he also observed into the gallery space and he thought that that behaviour should be kept on the other side of the barred windows of the art centre” says Carol-Anne.

Sexism and the male gaze continue to be hugely present in the artworld. Men are able to profit off the female form in a way not extended to female artists who wish to reclaim the sexualised image of a woman. For Carol-Anne McFarlane, the fight is not over. Female artists must continue to strive to have their own experiences and narrative heard as she claims the true artist “should give us a vision of a better future and encourage us to take action to get there quicker.” Proper representation of women can only truly be achieved when proper space is given to female perspectives.