Cirugía. From the series “La mujer”, 1970-1973
The artwork Cirugía talks about the dictatorship of beauty, imposed on women responding to the archetype of masculine taste of how women should be to be “suitable”. The aesthetic surgeries that were already becoming known during those years in my country, raised the alarm about unacceptable submission practices. Four doctors and two nurses pounce on a woman’s body – again I use colour to highlight the inhospitable and sour environment with greenish tones and, only, the patient’s arm has a human colour – on the side there is a graphic through which the surgical team is guided in the operation, but it is not X-rays or ultrasound scans, but rather an outline of a perfect squatting female body – perfectly adolescent – seen from different points of view in which red point are indicated, the points where the scalpel should penetrate: thighs, chest, abdomen and hips.
Isabel Oliver
