Page 29 - WTPO Vol. VII #5

my body. I heard one woman say that I had the perfect body. Andrew said it too.”
“I heard that in high school about you,” Becca said. “Who? You never told me that.”
“Making you feel good about your body wasn’t on my list in high school. I had my own hang-ups. Anyway, the guys gave you enough compliments.”
“Maybe back then. But just so you know, I was never invited back to the figure drawing class. He found someone better. I was too thin, the coordinator said.”
“Your breasts could be bigger, I guess,” Becca teased. “And then there’s the mole. And the weird toe.”
“Stop it!”
~
The next day at the Gallery, a prominent art critic was giving his interpretation of the work. The critic, the guard said to Victoria, was made aware of her.
The critic roamed about the sculpture as he spoke, pointing out its features.
“What do we have here? Look at her face. A bored, perhaps even drugged, expression of a young female who has removed her clothes in front of us with no modesty or care for either her body or her self. Notice she has a Brazilian, to erase any sign of maturity. Otherwise, an ordinary young woman—a woman
any of us may have seen in our lives—with a form
and face that isn’t ugly, but lifeless, where the beauty and the positive charge of exuberant life are sucked away. The extreme personification of the sculpture,
its actuality, as well as her pose, projects an indolent, empty, and shallow existence, without motion or rhythm, so full of self and indulgence that she can represent only the bareness of her self, only what she superficially is, namely, freckles. At any moment we expect her to take a selfie and put it on the Internet. And what she is, is shown by her lack of any depth outside the surface. She possesses everything but is nothing. Does this sculpture irritate you? It irritates me. I mean, couldn’t this be one of our daughters? The message of ‘Freckled Woman’ is direct: The magic and transcendence in life is gone. Gone! Only desire and pleasure exist, yet even these are fleeting. Her arms hang without significance. The position of her hips is awkward, suggesting again a neutral, dull, and bored sexuality. Innocence has long passed. The materials themselves—polyester resin and fiberglass—indicate a creature who wants to remake nature and life and
“V
ictoria had difficulty
separating the sculpture from herself. “
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