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Recent text on the work of Deidre But-Husaim 2004
Australian Art Collector
Issue 29, July - September 2004
'Smart Art' Profile by Chris Reid |
The reconsidered pop image, in this case, the 1950's pin-up, frequently appears in contemporary art but not always as oil on canvas. Deidre But-Husaim paints from digitally manipulated collages of imagery taken from popular culture.
Rosie Red Bits (2003) is a powerful work that draws together advertising images and a 1950's playing card pic. The addition of the halo transforms the playing-card cutie into a Madonna, the lipstick held loosely under her arm becomes a machine-gun, and the romantic roses could be a funerary wreath - this girl means business. But-Husaim says: "The women [in the playing cards] were to be looked upon, their purpose was to titillate and to please. There was no manifestation of an inner world, or sense of individual strength in these images." She transforms them.
In her Pollymorph series, But-Husaim again appropriates playing-card women, but modifies them, for example, by adding an extra set of lower limbs. These figures retain their enchanting prettiness and sexual suggestion but are grotesque. Rendered in pain, they are enshrined as aesthetic art objects, but are sharply edged. Through apparently light-hearted, they address serious themes such as genetic engineering, the power of advertising, and the objectification of the female subject. The viewer is cast as voyeur and the work critiques the typical media representations of women. But-Husaim suggests that women artists can address these issues more easily than men. The work also adverts to the digital manipulation typical of contemporary advertising and electronic media.
Ina new series, But-Husaim is painting images of small plastic dolls of 1970's vintage that become characters in an engrossing theatre of adult life. Her work is
meticulously finished. She is a member of Twin Bee Studios, Adelaide.
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