The Diamond Contessa, paperback cover 1983

Editor: This is "The Diamond Contessa, paperback cover" created in 1983 with acrylic paint by Ken Kelly. It really jumps out at me - this dominating figure and subservient male subject. How do you interpret this work? Curator: Immediately, I see a potent, if problematic, tableau ripe with the socio-political anxieties of the 1980s. The assertive female figure, a "contessa" no less, standing over a subjugated man. Do you think it's merely a product of its time, or does it echo longer standing tropes? Editor: I think it has elements of both! It feels like a specific take on old gender dynamics and power imbalances. Curator: Exactly! It presents a reversal, but within a classic, almost orientalist fantasy setting. Consider the racial and gender dynamics embedded here: a white woman exerts power over a presumably non-white man while fantastical, almost monstrous figures look on. It invites us to ask what kind of power structures it reflects or critiques, intended or not? How much do these kinds of fantasies inform and justify real-world inequities? Editor: I see what you mean. It looks like a challenge to established order, but perhaps not as much as it appears at first glance. Are there other clues? Curator: The very construction of "fantasy" is a clue. What societal assumptions are necessary for us to consider this scenario unrealistic? Editor: Right, it uses fantasy to play with and maybe even reinforce real-world issues of power. Curator: And perhaps, by presenting it in such stark terms, the artist unwittingly lays bare the structures of domination itself, inviting us to dismantle them, one canvas—or page—at a time. Editor: Thanks for opening my eyes to that; now I see a new angle to view the image.