The visual transformation of women’s identity: From Lot’s wife to the women of Iran
The visual transformation of women’s identity: From Lot’s wife to the women of Iran

Summary/Abstract: In Art History, the representation of the female figure has an important role, since as early as the prehistoric period and the Venus figurines and is respective to the social and cultural conditions that differ from era to era and place to place. As these data are linked to social stereotypes and the construction of the social gender, the woman as an object of representation is transformed according to her role as a social subject. The artists derive their themes from both myth and reality regarding how the female identity is transformed. This research proposal focuses on a comparative analysis of the works of two contemporary artists who draw their themes from Jewish religious tradition and women’s lives in the Middle East. These are the sculpture Lot’s Wife, by the Greek sculptor Froso Efthymiadi-Menegaki, and the film Turbulent, by the Iranian visual artist Shirin Neshat. The research is based on the theory of social gender, as formulated by the Australian sociologist Raewyn Connell, and the theory of social representations, introduced by the French social psychologist Serge Moscovici.

• Details
• Contents