Fleur Spolidor

The Swimsuits Series:
A Pictorial Reflection on Women’s Rights

The “Swimsuits series” is a pictorial representation of the surreal situations women face in society. Composed of twelve panels painted in acrylics on a collage of recycled materials, the paintings are inspired by real women’s personal stories and anecdotes, as well as by news articles and historical facts. The series comprises twelve paintings, as there are twelve months in a year; the women symbolize the pin-ups in a calendar. Twelve signifies, as well, the twelve labors of Hercules: impossible tasks that must be tackled.

The women are represented wearing only bathing suits, because a bathing suit, in direct opposition to the man’s suit of armor, offers no protection. It is a revealing little piece of fabric that can make women feel insecure for many reasons and is a clear marker of women’s status in the society of their time.

The works of art depicted on the women's bathing suits function in the same manner as the t-shirt marketing technique of displaying a brand or product on people's clothes: they become walking billboard advertisements for the campaign. Here, the women are advocating for their rights.

This is a series about women's struggles and hardship, from pink tax to breastfeeding to body dysmorphia. Each panel represents a specific story, but is also in dialogue with the other panels, creating an evolutionary timeline of the situations encountered by women.

They are painted in acrylic on a textured collage of recycled materials in order to upcycle, but also to create a flat, coarse space that cannot be ignored. This is in contrast to classical painting, which was traditionally constructed as windows onto a smooth, perfect world. The structure of the background shines through the painted image, marking the female bodies with roughness and imperfection, passing life that is imprinted on the flesh. I thus offer an unambiguous look at the contemporary woman: imperfect, real and combative.

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