Objectification, or the reduction of a person to a mere object, is a phenomenon in which the objectified individual is separated from their feelings, needs, and control over themselves. Objectification, mainly of the female body, is normalised in our society. In her essay titled “The Double Standard of Aging,” American writer and activist Susan Sontag analyses how a double standard measures women’s aging compared to men. A man matures, while a woman simply ages. All the attributes, qualities, and bodily changes women undergo with age are deemed unacceptable. This fact turns them into objects. Sontag wrote this essay in 1972; it is now 2023, and we can question what, if anything, has changed. 

The exhibition “WO(bject)MAN” opens a discussion on this topic. It features seven female artists who engage in a dialogue through 11 different art pieces. These works were created independently, in different places, under different conditions, and using different techniques. Nevertheless, each of them touches upon the same topic. Women experience objectification from a young age, and it is an experience that every woman encounters to a greater or lesser extent in her lifetime. Whether in the form of body shaming, catcalling, involuntary sexualisation, toxic relationships, ageism, or rape. This exhibition responds to all its forms. The works address either one or multiple forms of objectification and reveal its everyday presence in our lives. The artists also celebrate femininity, its multifaceted nature, and its fragile strength in their works. Together, they create a manifesto for reclaiming control over one’s own body. The exhibition is not a self-pitying confession of the artists but a testament to contemporary female art that emerges in a society that still measures women by a double standard. 

The artworks were installed to engage in thematic, semantic, and aesthetic conversations with each other. Sisterhood, community, self-confidence, and independence react in the diptych of photographs with painting. Powerful and combative, yet serene abstraction clashes with a figure marked by a toxic relationship, which has rediscovered respect within itself. Seemingly playful embroidered image on a transparent background juxtaposes innocence and sexualization, while the stitched figure in velvet takes control of its own body. Tenderness is enveloped in linocut. A delicate watercolor reveals the darker side of motherhood. The artworks narrate personal events that intersect with the universal experiences of all women. Each of them holds hidden strength in a different form. The exhibition invites viewers to contemplate the various spheres of women’s lives that objectification touches upon. 

“Women should allow their faces to show the lives they have lived. Women should tell the truth.” – Susan Sontag