Essay: Las santas vienen por ahí
Note: The protagonists of Las santas vienen por ahí (2025) were pieces created for my final Bachelor’s investigation. For it, I spent an entire school year making a series of works based off of one chosen topic. All but two pieces in the show were directly created for this investigation. Regardless, the ideas discussed in this essay were an important cornerstone for my personal grasping of the thematic and emotive through-line of all the works created for the exhibition.
My investigation was based, visually, in the reinterpretation of important works of Western Art History, particularly those in which the female figure has a significant role. In its conceptual sense, my project delves deeper into the general focus of my work of creating a form of “Asexual Erotica”.
Sexualizing a subject usually has negative connotations. In contemporary conversation, it cannot be separated from the dominion of the pornographic, of that which has no other reason for existing but the pursuit of sexual gratification. “Asexualization” is the term I’ve decided to use for representing feminine figures from my own asexual perspective. With it, I challenge the pornographic implications of the female nude and the perception of the individual female body as a sociocultural object. The use of exclusively the female figure is not just a manifestation of my own gender expression, but also a deliberate convention for speaking about how modern sexuality (taking in mind its entire historical baggage) can be both oppressor and liberator for all women in a patriarchal society. My figures aren’t created with the intention of stimulating sexual desire; my intention is that they be discomforting, that they look too strange, too performative yet also too raw to be truly appetizing under the traditional western standards for feminine beauty. Although my visual language certainly takes queues from erotic artwork, these references are used with the expressed purpose of creating clashing sensations in the observer, thanks to the contrast between the recognition (conscious or otherwise) of references to eroticism and the absence of any tangible erotic sensation.
The decision to base my project on the use of references came easily; in a media landscape dominated by the referential, I consider the use references to historical works an effective method for creating a common visual origin in order to better express my worries to the observer. Most people know that the majority of art in the West that depicts the female figure was not created by women. The image of femininity that we carry in popular culture today was curated by the eye of men, in no small part thanks to the arts. Using references is my way of conversing with these long-dead artists- of defying their views and their ultimate conclusions about the “nature” of women and putting into question why they were so readily accepted by popular culture. It’s my way of toiling with the clashing emotions of me finding these images extremely beautiful but also recognizing how they have impacted the look and feel of my existence as a woman in the 21st century.
Las santas vienen por ahí brings forth the maturation of the artistic journey I began almost parallel to the beginning of my undergraduate degree and marks the end of my project. However, it is not the conclusion of my exploring of these themes. Dedicating myself to this project for a year has solidified my interest in themes of sexuality, image and body. Though this show marks the end of the body of work I created as an undergraduate student, it is my hope that it also marks the beginning of a continuing journey.
