Dimensions: support: 294 x 208 mm
Copyright: © Helena Almeida | CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 DEED, Photo: Tate
Editor: This is Helena Almeida's "Drawing (with pigment)" from the Tate Collections. It’s a sketch, very raw and immediate. I'm struck by the figure turning away. What do you see in this piece that I might be missing? Curator: Almeida's work often explores the female body in relation to space and representation. Considering her context—a female artist pushing boundaries in a traditionally male-dominated field—how might this relate to identity? Is the turning away a form of refusal? Editor: Refusal of what, exactly? Societal expectations, perhaps? Curator: Precisely. Or maybe the expectation of being seen, of being objectified. How does this drawing speak to the politics of the gaze? Editor: I hadn't thought about it that way. It makes me see the drawing as a statement of self-determination, a reclamation of her own image. Thanks! Curator: And thanks to you, I see how powerfully simple lines can convey complex themes of identity.
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http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/almeida-drawing-with-pigment-t13486
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This is one of thirty-eight drawings in Tate’s collection by Almeida, all of which are rendered in ink, pen and pigment on sheets of off-white A4 paper. Each sheet has four holes punched down one side, and a number of the sheets have drawings on both sides. The images consist of simple line drawings, overlaid with passages of dense pigment. Each depicts the artist’s body in whole or in part. Many detail her hands, often in the act of drawing. Other images show the artist’s legs, arms or torso, or show her performing an action: dragging an unidentifiable mass that is attached to her ankle by a rope, or pushing her prone body up from the floor.
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