Reclaiming the Body in Womens Video Art

Sarah Ferguson
Final Paper
ARTH 7420

In the contemporary world it is nearly impossible to escape the screen with its
ubiquitous glow that is constantly transmitting news, entertainment, advertising, and a
myriad of other images and information. Although recently the media has been fractured
by independent production and a push back against commodity driven programming, a
steady stream of high gloss ads and formulaic shows still dominate televisions,
computers, and the exponentially growing number of devices used to consume media.
Within the realms of consumerism and media, women have historically been
marginalized and stereotyped to not only sell products, but to also uphold a patriarchal
social structure. Today, the roles women take on in television, movies, and ads are more
varied than in the past, but still nowhere near as diverse as their male counterparts. In
contemporary media, the bodies of women are often still framed as objects of male
desire. Despite the persistence of female objectification, it has always faced staunch
opposition by women who are determined to create images on their terms.
The relatively recent emergence of closed circuit video as a viable artistic medium
was one method by which women could fight back against narrow representations of
themselves. On screen women were predominantly defined by the male gaze, which
meant cameras were focused mainly on their sexual attributes instead of their full bodies
or non-sexual parts.1 In order to counterbalance the male gaze, female video artists made
work to desexualize the bodies of women. The lack of objectification enabled the female
body to proliferate in meaning, and created new narratives of womens experience that
were unfiltered through a male lens. In order to examine the redefinition of female bodies
in video art and the subversion of the male gaze, I will be focusing on four works by
1 Nussbaum, Martha C. Objectification, Philosophy and Public Affairs 24, No. 4 (Autumn 1995), 256257.

different women video artists. These works include Joan Jonas Vertical Roll (1972, Figs.
2-4), Martha Roslers Vital Statistics the Average Citizen Simply Obtained (1977, Figs. 57), Mona Hatuoms Corps Etranger (1994, Figs. 9-11), and Returning to Fuji (1984, Fig.
13) from Nan Hoovers Landscape series. I will begin by briefly discussing the historical
background of video art, then I will analyze how female video artists used the technical
capabilities of the medium to change perceptions of their bodies, and finally my paper
will consider how these works relate to media today and representations of women.
Video Art and Women
Before analyzing these works, it is essential to preface them with a short historical
overview of video art and its importance to women artists. Video art as a medium
emerged in 1965, with the release of the Sony Portapak (Fig. 1). It was an inexpensive
and battery powered portable video camera that filmed in black and white.2 Although
some of the details related to the origin of video art have been disputed, Nam June Paik is
widely regarded as having begun the video art movement with his footage of Pope Paul
VIs visit to New York (Fig. 14).3 Artist Martha Rosler (Vital Statistics of A Citizen
Simply Obtained) specifically takes issue with this popular version of video art history
and describes it as mythical in her book Decoys and Disruptions. Roslers argument
states that centering the beginning of video art on Nam June Paik frames it in terms of
male genius, despite a lack of clear evidence that Paik was the sole progenitor of the
movement.4 According to Rosler, the theory of video art beginning with one specific
2 Rush, Michael. Video Art (London: Thames and Hudson 2003), 7-8.
3 Ibid.
4 Rosler, Martha. Decoys and Disruptions: Selected Writings 1975-2001 (Cambridge: MIT Press 2004),
73-74.

person overlooks its diverse background and marginalizes the role of women in the
formation of video art.5 Martha Gever further elaborates upon the relationship between
women and video art in The Feminism Factor. In this essay, Gever states that women
were underrepresented in galleries and museums, which mainly catered to male artists.
The medium of video provided a new method by which women could work outside of the
established museum culture. Furthermore, she points out that the very language of art has
masculinity embedded within it, using the examples of phrases like great artist or
masterpiece, which she claims are historically associated with men.6 According to
Gever and Rosler, the exclusion of females from high art settings led to them using video
to define themselves in their own new terms. Since video art lacked the sort of male
dominated art historical precedent many other mediums were steeped in, and had no
stylistic conventions, it was attractive to women who were overlooked in traditional art
settings because they often lacked formal training.7
Due to video arts growing attractiveness to groups marginalized by traditional art
making, many early video artists worked in other mediums before they began
experimenting with moving images.8 The use of video helped to blur the lines between art
and pop culture, though it remained on the margins of the art world for nearly thirty years
after it began in 1965. Before the 1990s, when video art finally gained widespread
visibility in museum and gallery shows, videos were mainly shown in alternative spaces
5 Rosler, Martha. Decoys and Disruptions: Selected Writings 1975-2001, 74.
6 Gever, Martha. The Feminism Factor: Video and its Relation to Feminism, in Illuminating Video, ed.
Doug Hall and Sally Jo Fifer (Bay Area Video Coalition/Aperture 2005), 226-227.

7 Ibid., 227.
8 Rush, Video Art. 9-10

like cafes or artists apartments.9 As a consequence of this limited representation, much of

the audience for early works were people in the know.10 Although video art was elusive
to the greater public, the ideas espoused within many video art pieces were not isolated
from issues facing the rest of the world. When video art began in the 1960s, it was firmly
rooted in the social and political upheaval at the time. The Civil Rights Movement,
Second Wave Feminism, and the cultural clash of the Vietnam War all shaped the
concerns of early video art.11 Due to the obscure nature of early videos, they mainly
served as an extension of the dialogue within countercultural groups, rather than being
intended for mainstream audiences.12
In addition to video arts importance as a reaction against the increasingly
commodity oriented museums and galleries, it provided an alternative to the blatantly
commercial images of television. During the 1950s, television significantly gained
viewership with the movement of families into suburbia.13 Programming relied upon the
idealization of middle class American values, and employed stereotypes to represent the
social, racial, and economic complexities that dominated the real world. Spectators
consumed television passively, which meant that TV sets could feed ideology directly

9 Elwes, Catherine. Video Art, A Guided Tour (London: I.B. Taurus 2005), 1-2.
10 Ibid.
11 Sturken, Martha. Paradox in the Evolution of an Art Form: Great Expectations and the Making of
History, in Illuminating Video, ed. Doug Hall and Sally Jo Fifer (Bay Area Video Coalition/Aperture
2005), 226-227.

12 Ibid., 227.
13. Graham, Dan. Video in Relation to Architecture, in Illuminating Video, eds. Doug Hall, Sally Jo
Fifer (Bay Area Video Coalition/Aperture 2005), 226-227.

into a viewers uncritical mind.14 Influenced by Freuds theories of the unconscious

upholding hegemony, feminists almost immediately took to reacting against the
stereotypical and objectified images of women that television proliferated.15 Within
womens video art this translated into a need to remove female bodies from the male
gaze, and a denial of the stereotypical associations of femininity.
Joan Jonas: Interrupting the Gaze
One of the first female artists to use video as a reaction against the dominant
media images was American artist Joan Jonas. Her 1972 piece Organic Honeys Vertical
Roll (Figs. 2-4) employs several visual techniques in order to counteract the male gaze.
Vertical Roll (Figs. 2-4) is a black and white video with a running length of twenty
minutes. The full title refers to Organic Honey, who is the character that Jonas takes on in
the video, as well as in her performances.16 Her performance piece, Organic Honeys
Visual Telepathy, was a precursor to Vertical Roll (Figs. 2-4), and the footage for Vertical
Roll (Figs. 2-4) was recorded during a rehearsal for her performance at the Ace Gallery in
Los Angeles.17 In addition to her performance background, early avant-garde filmmakers
like Sergei Eisenstein and Maya Deren influenced Jonas videos with their use of out of
sync images and sound.18

14 Gever, The Feminism Factor, in Illuminating Video. 229.

15 Ibid.
16 Joselit, David. Feedback (Cambridge: MIT Press 2007), 162.
17 Tom Finklepearl, Joan Jonas, Joan Jonas: Five Works eds. Warren Niesluchowski, Valerie Smith (New
York: Queens Museum of Art, 2003), 10.

18 Rush, Video Art. 87.

The technical term vertical roll refers to the method she uses to fracture the
footage so it moves downward across the screen, with black lines separating short video
clips. This effect is caused by the interaction of two out of sync frequencies that result
from misadjusting the v-hold on a television set. The footage from Vertical Roll (Figs. 24) shows Jonas body in pieces as the camera drifts in and out of focus on her. She
appears in various masks and costumes, not speaking, and making slow gestures with her
legs and arms. During the length of the video a loud clapping noise can be heard which
appears to be in sync with the rhythm of the vertical roll.
Vertical Roll (Figs. 2-4) uses the language of objectification combined with
unexpected elements to deny the male gaze. The camera crops her body so she appears as
disembodied parts, which reference the fetishistic portrayals of women as pieces instead
of whole bodies.19 Unlike traditional objectification techniques, which allow the viewers
eye to linger on body parts, the black lines of the vertical roll abruptly cut through the
scene. Sound also plays a role in denying the gaze, and the addition of the loud persistent
clap is a stark contrast to the seductive imagery. In addition to her focus on body parts,
Jonas use of masks and costumes also allow her to explore tropes and stereotyped
femininity. In reference to her use of disguises Jonas states:
At first I saw the monitor/projector as an ongoing mirror. Watching myself I tried
to alter the image using objects, costumes and masks, moving through various
identities (the sorcerer, the floozie, the howling dog). Narcissism was a habit.
Every move was for the monitor.20

19 Garwood, Deborah. Video Beginnings: The Early Show: Video from 1969-1979, PAJ: A Journal of
Performance and Art 28, No. 3 (Sept. 2006), 43.

20 Jonas, Joan. Panel Remarks, in The New Television, eds. Douglas Davis, Allison Simmons
(Cambridge: MIT Press 1977), 71.

These disguises also serve to highlight the change at the end of the video when Jonas
reveals her unmasked face to the viewer. This visual change illustrates the ultimate denial
of the objectification in the work. As her face appears on screen, she turns to face the
viewer directly in a moment of honesty and confrontation that humanizes the scantily
clad body on screen.
For Jonas the television image also represents an image of the self reflected back
as an other.21 Yvonne Spielmann points out that Jonas use of disguises calls attention to
the medium of recording and the method of staging identities on screen. When the
unconcealed Jonas steps between the staged representations and the viewer at the end of
the piece, she exemplifies the boundary between the mythic image and the reality that is
normally hidden in media.22 David Joselit claims that this contrast between the real image
and the character gives the impression that identity is a process rather than a televisual
presence.23 Within this piece, the limitations of media representations are exposed
through the metaphor of what is seen versus what is unseen. Vertical Roll (Figs. 2-4)
specifically creates, and then deconstructs images associated with the male gaze in order
to expose it to viewers. By interrupting the gaze, viewers realize the similar images they
see daily in media can also fall apart if contrasted with the reality they represent as an
idealized version.
Martha Rosler: The Personal is Political

21 DeJong, Constance. A Work by Joan Jonas: Organic Honeys Visual Telepathy, The Drama Review
16, No. 2 (June 1972), 63.

22 Spielmann, Yvonne. Video: The Reflexive Medium (Cambridge: MIT Press 2008), 149.
23 Joselit, Feedback. 162.

Although Joan Jonas sought to pull back the curtain on objectification in television and
advertising, her work was relatively abstract when it came to gender politics and
ideology. Martha Rosler was likewise concerned with how women were represented in
media, however, her work had a much more obvious political message. Roslers piece
Vital Statistics of the Average Citizen Simply Obtained (Figs. 5-7) from 1977 deals with a
much more probing and scientific version of objectification than seen in Vertical Roll
(Figs. 2-4). Similar to Joan Jonas, Martha Rosler was interested in using aspects of
performance and her own body in video work.24 Roslers method of self-objectification in
order to call attention to narrow representations of femininity echoes how Jonas framed
her own body using the male gaze in Vertical Roll (Figs. 2-4). While both artists sought to
undermine objectification, Rosler also aimed to scrutinize the underlying ideology that
maintained the male gaze and the artificial concept of gender.
Vital Statistics of the Average Citizen Simply Obtained (Figs. 5-7) is a three part, thirtynine minute video that begins with Martha Rosler closely being inspected by two male
doctors, while a few females stand by and occasionally assist the men. The video includes
a voice-over by Rosler, which accompanies a majority of the video. It also includes audio
from an informational medical video on the necessity for women to stay in the home for
the sake of their children. At the beginning of the video Rosler gives a brief synopsis of
the work to the viewer stating:
This is an opera in three acts. This is a work about perception. Theres no image
on the screen just yet. It isnt about the perception of just small facts. It isnt about
the physiology of perception. Its about the perception of self. Its about the
meaning of truth, the definition of fact. [] This is a work about being done to.
This is a work about learning how to think. [] The first act is in real time and
ends in a montage. Act two is symbolic. [] Act three is tragic, horrific, mythic.
24 Rush, Video Art. 86.

[] Its about scrutiny on a mass level. About what has been, and what could be.
I neednt remind you about processing and mass extermination. You remember
about the scientific study of human beings. This is a work about coercion.
Coercion can be quick and brutal. That is the worst crime. Coercion can also
extend over the whole of life. Thats the ordinary, the usual crime. Bureaucratic
crime can be brutal or merely devastating, we need not make a choice. Sartre
says, Evil demands only the systematic substitution of the abstract for the
concrete. That is, it demands only the de-realization of the fully human status of
the people on whom you carry out your ideas and plans. Statistics.25
During the first part of the video following her narrated introduction, Martha Rosler has
her body parts measured and recorded while she narrates her on screen selfs adherence
to the societal expectations associated with being a woman. After the measurements, she
is dressed and redressed in multiple outfits and feminine styles. The second and
symbolic act shows Martha Rosler routinely breaking eggs open with a knife and
pouring their contents into a bowl. She then positions the bowl to face the camera, which
ends the act. The third part of the video is a slideshow of medical style photos
accompanied by her voiceover recounting historical acts of oppression against women.
Within Vital Statistics of the Average Citizen Simply Obtained (Figs. 5-7), the ideas of
objectification and dehumanization are tied together through scientific processing of the
body. Although the entirety of her nude body is revealed to the viewer, it is placed within
a medical setting, which causes the body to lose all sexual meaning.26 Rosler uses the
clinical measurements and examination as metaphors for how women view their bodies
in everyday life. In the first act of the video Rosler reinforces this by saying:
Her mind learns to think of her body as something different from her self. It learns
to think, perhaps without awareness, of her body as having parts. These parts are
to be judged. The self has already learned to attach value to itself, to see itself as a
25 Rosler, Martha. Vital Statistics of An Average Citizen Simply Obtained, YouTube video, posted by
Samuel HY So, Oct. 3, 2013, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHYlwyuKvJg.

26 Elwes, Video Art, A Guided Tour. 50.

whole entity with an external vision. She sees herself from the outside with the
anxious eyes of the judge, who has within her the critical standards of the ones
who judge.27
In Vital Statistics of the Average Citizen Simply Obtained (Figs. 5-7) the doctors precise
notes on the womans body represent how women are taught to look at their own bodies
and compare them against ideals. Self consciousness also ties into Martha Roslers
interest in the feminist idea of the personal being political.28 This means that, for women,
the private world lacks political neutrality because it is constantly tied to upholding
standards set by a hegemonic ideology. The realm of the domestic world is not actually a
safe haven from ideals, expectations, and judgment. It is instead a place where women
enforce the rules of gender upon themselves. Rosler elaborates upon this point in her
video by saying:
The mind has learned to thirst for a private self, to suppress the desire and fail to
acknowledge the thirst. To welcome the respite provided by the privatized
domestic space. But even here she is not immune from judgment. The total
woman remembers to bathe everyday. To manage her image in such a way that
her personality disappears, and her ability to absorb and be projected upon; to
present herself for delectation, substitutes for private desires of the self as self, in
which masochism is the definition of fulfillment. They say women are masochists
by nature. What is nature? I say masochism is a crime against women.29
This concept of the personal being political is also what Martha Rosler calls leveling,
or the eradication of the difference between the individual and the state.30 Because the
27 Rosler, Martha. Vital Statistics of An Average Citizen Simply Obtained, YouTube video, posted by
Samuel HY So, Oct. 3, 2013, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHYlwyuKvJg.

28 Tamblyn, Christine. Significant Others: Social Documentary As Personal Portraiture in Womens

Video of the 1980s, in Illuminating Video, eds. Doug Hall, Sally Jo Fifer (Bay Area Video
Coalition/Aperture 2005), 406.

29 Rosler, Martha. Vital Statistics of An Average Citizen Simply Obtained, YouTube video, posted by
Samuel HY So, Oct. 3, 2013, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHYlwyuKvJg.

30 Gever, The Feminism Factor, in Illuminating Video. 240.

media is used to convey the ideals of the dominant ideology, Rosler uses it to attack the
oppressive structure itself.31 She also references the ways that television and advertising
teach gender roles, and how the very idea of being a woman is constructed. As Joan Jonas
did in Vertical Roll (Figs. 2-4), Rosler depicts identity as a process of putting things on.
In Vital Statistics (Figs. 5-7) she runs through a list of actions women take in order to
appeal to men that resembles lists and directions commonly found in fashion magazines:
To check stray hairs of the head; to tighten or untighten muscles of the scalp; to
remember the line of the neck; to pluck stray hairs; to draw on ones face; to add
paint on top of flesh [] to add colored powder, to learn what is called the color
of flesh; to see ones features from up close; to regard them as invisible, as in a
raw state until outlined or painted over; to see some hairs as important and needed
and others as bad, unwanted; to approximate an ideal; to add black paint to the
eyelashes, to the eyebrows; to think of changing the color and shape of ones hair;
to judge the body, always finding it faulty.32
Here, Rosler details to the viewer the plethora of actions that women take in order to
conform to the image of female. She stresses the artificiality of gender, and how it is
painted on to a person using make-up or hair dye. Her questioning of what is natural is
further exaggerated when she wonders about the safety of the ingredients commonly
found in beauty products. The reality that cosmetic items women use could actually be
harmful to their health, but are seen as an integral part of womanhood, completely
undermines their relationship to natural feminine roles. Henry Sayre analyzes Roslers
emphasis on beauty supplies and concludes that within her work cosmetics represent the
ambiguous relationship between the image and the self. He argues that the use of make-

31 Ibid.
32 Rosler, Martha. Vital Statistics of An Average Citizen Simply Obtained, YouTube video, posted by
Samuel HY So, Oct. 3, 2013, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHYlwyuKvJg.

up within Vital Statistics (Figs. 5-7) symbolizes the difference between being and
acting.33
Later in the video, Roslers use of clothing changes further illustrates her point
that the feminine identity is like a costume. She is handed items of clothing to wear, and
then styles herself differently with each new outfit. The changes in costume have a
similar function to the use of disguises in Vertical Roll (Figs. 2-4) in that they create
different states of being a woman, but each of these states is only narrowly defined by
material. In Vital Statistics (Figs. 5-7) Martha Roslers concept of the self is a series of
fictional characters, or identities, that are to be compared to other women and their roles
within the real world.34 She is undressed and redressed before the viewer, and her body is
treated as an object onto which identities are projected. As one watches this video and
performance, it exposes the underlying self-criticism that women must subject
themselves to in order to conform to images of male desire. The male gaze is not only
shown as being completely inaccurate, it is also depicted as harmful to those who face it.
At the end of the video Rosler reiterates this point by providing the viewer with the
historical proof of this damage, including examples that support her claim that women
navigate a world where they lack determination over their bodies. That even in their most
intimate spaces, women are still expected to tend to their image with an unsparing eye.
Mona Hatuom: The Body as a Void
If Martha Roslers work represents a sort of objectification by scientific scrutiny, then
Palestinian artist Mona Hatuoms work Corps Etranger (1994, Figs.9-11 ) is invasive by
33 Sayre, Henry M. The Object of Performance: The American Avant-Garde Since 1970 (Chicago:
University of Chicago Press 1989), 83.

34 Turim, Maureen. The Cultural Logic of Video, in Illuminating Video, 336.

comparison. Despite the fact that Corps Etranger was completed in 1994, it retains many
of the same concerns that both Jonas Vertical Roll (1972, Figs. 2-4) and Roslers Vital
Statistics of the Average Citizen Simply Obtained (1977, Figs. 5-7) explore. Themes of
subverting objectification and creating new ways of looking at womens bodies are
essential to all of these works. Additionally, Mona Hatuom originally conceived the idea
for the work fourteen years prior to its creation, however she was unable to secure
adequate funding and the technology was unavailable at the time.35 With this in mind, the
actual plan for Corps Etranger (Figs. 9-11) only followed Roslers Vital Statistics (Figs.
5-7) by three years, and the two works contain a similar emphasis on scientific
observation and the objectification of the body.
Footage for Corps Etranger (Figs. 9-11) was taken on an endoscopic camera (used to
examine a digestive tract) inserted through Hatuoms mouth.36 The images from these
medical recording devices were then edited for Corps Etranger (Figs. 9-11). The video
begins with a shot of Mona Hatuoms eye, then the focus moves down her face, and
finally into her mouth and digestive system. In her book Video Art, A Guided Tour,
Catherine Elwes argues that the inclusion of the eye in the video establishes a female
presence at the beginning of the video. In discussing the transformation of the exterior to
the universal interior Elwes claims:
This is achieved whilst retaining a sense of female presence not least because of
the culturally established authorship of the eye that propels the camera into
unknown territory. [...] Video- I see- anthropomorphizes the eye of the camera
into the eye of the artist and in the process of self examination reconfigures the
body she/it sees as the object of a constitutive feminine subjectivity, the fruit of
35 Archer, Michael, Guy Brett and Catherine de Zegher. Mona Hatuom (London: Phaidon Press 1997),
70.

36 Ibid., 71.

creative energies emanating from that same biological conglomeration that, for
want of a better word, we call female.37
Elwes further elaborates on this point by stating Hatuoms status as a successful female
artist influences the viewers reading of the female authorship of the eye.38 While Elwes
is an interesting perspective on the meaning of Hatuoms eye in piece, the eye itself is not
blatantly marked as male or female for viewer. In fact, the video is taken at such close
proximity that gender becomes impossible to perceive. When the view of the camera is
transported inside the body, common physiology makes any male or female traits
indecipherable.
During an interview with Claudia Spinelli, Mona Hatuom explains that Corps
Etranger (Figs. 9-11) is actually part of a larger body of work in which she explores
surveillance and penetrating gazes.39 Another related work titled, Dont Smile. Youre on
Camera (Fig. 12), used live footage of Hatuoms audience, which she mixed with images
of nude bodies parts superimposed over the forms of people in the crowd. This produced
the illusion that one could see through the clothing of audience members.40 As the
performance continued, audience members walked out because they found the work
invasive and aggressive.41 In contrast, Corps Etranger (Figs. 9-11) uses the interior of
Hatuoms own body to make a point about the scientific eyes invasion of boundaries and
37 Elwes, Video Art, A Guided Tour. 49-50.
38 Ibid,. 49.
39 Archer, Brett and de Zegher, Mona Hatuom. 137-138.
40 Ibid., 10.
41 Ibid.

its similarities to male exploitation of female bodies.42 Despite this show of ultimate
vulnerability, Hatuom insists the video can paradoxically be interpreted as an abyss,
devouring womb, or vagina dentata that causes castration anxiety in its male viewers.43
The interplay between victimization and empowerment gives the body multiple
narratives, further highlighted by the nature of Maya Hatuoms installation for Corps
Etranger (Figs. 9-11). For the piece, Hatuom created a large cylindrical structure in
which she projected her video onto the floor. When the viewer is confronted with the
video it appears as a hole in the floor, leading further into the depths of Hatuoms body.
There is also a sense of the interior paths of the body being like a maze one can traverse.
By comparing the scientific invasion of female bodies to their everyday experiences with
objectification, both Mona Hatuom and Martha Rosler re-contextualize the critical nature
male gaze into an environment that lacks any sexual connotations. In doing so, it
becomes apparent that womens bodies have a multiplicity of meanings that are generally
ignored in order to perpetuate exploitative representations.
Nan Hoover: Flesh as a Terrain
Mona Hatuoms use of the body as a place one can travel through is not without
precedent. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Dutch artist Nan Hoover began working on
a series of videos depicting the female body as a landscape.44 Hoover is a relatively wellknown artist, however her early works are a challenge to obtain for viewing. As a result, I

42 Archer, Brett and de Zegher, Mona Hatuom. 71.

43 Ibid., 138.
44 Elwes, Video Art, A Guided Tour. 49.

will be focusing on her piece Returning to Fuji (1984, Fig. 13), which is available to
watch online.
Returning to Fuji (Fig. 13) is a black and white eight-minute video of what
appears to be a mountain range, but on closer inspection is revealed to be flesh
transformed into a landscape using moving lighting and shadows. The clever use of
lighting, combined with atmospheric sound, creates the illusion of a body as a place.
Hoover shared Mona Hatuoms interest in abstracting the body by extreme proximity.
While Hatuom allowed viewers to explore the passages of her inner body, Nan Hoover
used her exterior flesh to compose serene terrains. Within Hoovers landscapes of the
body, the details of flesh that would normally mark age or gender become landmarks and
valleys.45 As in Corps Etranger (Figs. 9-11) the artists female body is no longer defined
by common representations of the female form that exaggerate sexuality.
Future Bodies
Within the selected works of Joan Jonas, Martha Rosler, Mona Hatuom, and Nan Hoover
there is the common thread of creating new methods of representation for female bodies.
The works span a period of time from 1972 to 1994, and only represent a select number
of videos created by women artists that address these issues, not to mention the numerous
other art forms that also deal with these problems. Objectification, the male gaze,
stereotypes, and other narrowly defined concepts of what it means to be a woman
persisted before, and during, the time of these works. Even still, they continue to haunt
the lives of all types of women today. Many of these pieces fight back against tropes, and
beauty ideals, which are positioned as exploitative. Martha Rosler explains that in the
45 Elwes, Video Art, A Guided Tour. 49.

lives of women even private space is not immune from constant self-scrutiny in the
pursuit of beauty ideals. During her time, Roslers insistence that sexualized images
stripped women of agency represented a progressive viewpoint. However, in recent years
the very foundation of what constitutes agency and objectification has exposed itself as
more complex. As Third Wave Feminism has taken hold, the muddy territory between
sexual expressiveness and sexual exploitation has likewise become harder to navigate.
Gender has also morphed into something which can be altered, or that is not tied to the
body alone. In A Cyborg Manifesto (1991), Donna Harraway makes the case for a type of
feminism with no hierarchy of identities: the cyborg. This cybernetic organism is a fluid
identity where not only do males and females not exist, but the distinctions between
humans, machines, and animals are also irrelevant.46 As the female body continues to
grow in complexity, so must its representations. The construction of gender as two
categories in opposition to one another has served to marginalize those who exist outside
of its boundaries. As the media becomes populated with diverse representations of
gender, our concept of the other breaks down and inclusivity expands.

46 Harraway, Donna. A Cyborg Manifesto: Science, Technology, and Socialist Feminism in the Late
Twentieth Century, in Simians, Cyborgs and Women: The Reinvention of Nature (New York: Routlage
1991), 149-181.

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Figure 1. Sony Portapak.

Figure 2. Vertical Roll, 1972. Joan Jonas. Video.

Figure 3. Vertical Roll, 1972. Joan Jonas. Video.

Figure 4. Vertical Roll, 1972. Joan Jonas. Video.

Figure 5. Vital Statistics of An Average Citizen Simply Obtained, 1977.. Martha Rosler.
Video.

Figure 6. Vital Statistics of An Average Citizen Simply Obtained, 1977. Martha Rosler.
Video.

Figure 7. Vital Statistics of An Average Citizen Simply Obtained, 1977. Martha Rosler.
Video.

Figure 8. Vital Statistics of An Average Citizen Simply Obtained, 1977. Martha Rosler.
Video.

Figure 9. Corps Etranger, 1994. Mona Hatuom. Video.

Figure 10. Corps Etranger, 1994. Mona Hatuom.Video.

Figure 11. Corps Etranger (installation view). Mona Hatuom.

Figure 12. Dont Smile. Youre on Camera, 1980. Mona Hatuom. Live video processing.

Figure 13. Returing to Fuji, 1984. Nan Hoover. Video.

Figure 14. Pope Paul VI, 1965. Nam June Paik. Video.