For this week’s art gallery’s artist conversations, I felt as if I were very limited on artists that I could speak with. From what I remember, I only saw one artist out speaking with students. So rather than feeling the need to speak with that artist because she was the only one out, I decided to take matters into my own hands and write about an artist that wasn’t present at the galleries. I wanted to write about art that I chose because I enjoyed it and wanted to talk about it, not choose a gallery just because that’s the only artist that was available to speak with us at the time. So with that being said, I decided to write about Katie Bickerstaff’s presentation in the Werby Gallery.
Upon entering the gallery I noticed a sign that read something along the lines of, “Warning: Contains adult content such as nudity” and with that forewarning, I was a little nervous as of what I might see when I enter the doors. However, all I saw was a bed covered in sheets and blankets that displayed a continuous print of nipples. After seeing that the nipples is what the sign was warning us about, I couldn’t help but think, “that’s it?” And after some thought, I realized that this is exactly the point that the artist, Katie, is referring to; and I completely agree.
Nipples are just nipples. Nipples are played out to be such a bigger deal than they should be; and more specifically, women’s nipples. When looking at the room display covered in prints of nipples, viewers can’t even tell if they belong to a woman or a man. Nipples are merely a simple body part that both genders have and for whatever reason, one is sexualized and the other is not.
ntkristine 