Angels of Anarchy, Women Artists and Surrealism

Traditional still life painting usually features subject matter such as arrangements of food, flowers or objects. Women surrealists reworked still life to challenge how women's roles and bodies have traditionally been represented. They often draw comparisons between body parts and food, using surrealist puns and juxtapositions to 'dish up' the objectification of women in a male-dominated world.

Some artists used found materials and animal matter such as wood, cork, coral and embalmed birds to assemble beautiful, but sinister surreal objects. Other artists put themselves into the artwork, such as Francesca Woodman’s torso in her photograph Three Kinds of Melon and Mimi Parent's own hair in the object Maitresse.

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