Image of Gallery in South Kensington
Request to view at the Prints & Drawings Study Room, level E , Case DR, Shelf 45

Untitled

Drawing
2004 (made)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

Claudia Casarino lives and works in Paraguay. She has long been interested in water and its effects on the body – nourishing, sensual and cleansing. She describes water as a cage that frees the naked body from the world around it. At the same time she is interested in the way the female body has been treated in the popular press, the way it has expressed male fantasy and desire rather than a more prosaic reality of womanhood.

During a residency in London in 2004 Casarino began to make a series of drawings of the female body. She took photographs of herself, enlarged them, then traced the outline of the figure onto tracing paper with water. The female figure is shown in private situations that are to do with self-image. Here the figure shaves her legs – a process that is cleansing but also a way in which she ties herself to an idealised form. To Casarino the rites and routines of self-enhancement nearly cause the real woman to disappear. She notes that historically women have rarely been represented as themselves and have disappeared under layers of make-up or garments. By using water to define the body, Casarino delicately underscores this invisibility.


Object details

Categories
Object type
Titles
  • Untitled
  • Neither a Goddess, nor a Queen (series title)
Materials and techniques
Brush drawing with a wet brush (but no ink or paint) on tracing paper
Brief description
'Untitled', drawing of young woman shaving legs from 'Neither a Goddess, nor a Queen' series, water on tracing paper, by Claudia Casarino, London, 2004.
Physical description
Sheet of tracing paper on which can be seen, under a raking light, the outline of a female figure, standing with one leg raised and bent at the knee and one hand holding a razor against the calf of this leg. The drawing has been made by applying a fine, wet brush to the paper which has then shrunk at point of contact, so the line appears as an impression in the paper but is quite difficult to see.
Dimensions
  • Height: 59.1cm
  • Very slightly irregular width: 41.8cm
Credit line
Given by the artist
Production
Casarino made it while artist in residence at Gasworks Studios, Triangle Arts Trust, London in 2004.
Subjects depicted
Summary
Claudia Casarino lives and works in Paraguay. She has long been interested in water and its effects on the body – nourishing, sensual and cleansing. She describes water as a cage that frees the naked body from the world around it. At the same time she is interested in the way the female body has been treated in the popular press, the way it has expressed male fantasy and desire rather than a more prosaic reality of womanhood.

During a residency in London in 2004 Casarino began to make a series of drawings of the female body. She took photographs of herself, enlarged them, then traced the outline of the figure onto tracing paper with water. The female figure is shown in private situations that are to do with self-image. Here the figure shaves her legs – a process that is cleansing but also a way in which she ties herself to an idealised form. To Casarino the rites and routines of self-enhancement nearly cause the real woman to disappear. She notes that historically women have rarely been represented as themselves and have disappeared under layers of make-up or garments. By using water to define the body, Casarino delicately underscores this invisibility.
Collection
Accession number
E.3-2006

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Record createdFebruary 20, 2006
Record URL
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