An ‘Innocent’ view of women

Young Chang

Wendy Marvel is disturbed by the use of the female form in Western

culture.

Women are idealized, and the subjects used in advertisements and other

forms of media get stripped of an identity, she said.

“A photograph is not a reality,” continued the 33-year-old artist.

“What our society views as ideal or normal is actually a perfect or

nonpersonal view of the female form.”

The subjective becomes the objective, what starts and begins as an

idea gets mistaken for reality.

Marvel’s exhibit “The Innocents,” at Orange Coast College’s Photo

Gallery through Friday, communicates the artist’s position on the image

of women.

The 25-piece collection has two parts -- one is a series of

photographic self-portraits on handmade paper and wax, the other is a

developmental sequence of girls, young women and older women.

The self portraits feature Marvel nude, and each photo is encased in

wax to haze out specific and defining characteristics of the face and

hair.

“It could be your mother, it could be your daughter, it could be any

idealized form,” Marvel said.

She chose to be photographed nude because the loss of clothing makes

it difficult for the viewer to pinpoint a referential time and place.

“I wanted it to be all time and all place,” the Venice resident said.

Each piece also shows very light, almost indiscernible handwriting,

which Marvel included so the viewer would question the image’s meaning.

“It was just supposed to elicit that response you see in advertising,”

she said. “You see an ideal woman in a commercial or in any kind of

advertising, and you don’t get an identity from that woman. That’s what

I’m trying to pinpoint, and that’s what bothers me.”

The second wall of “Innocents” features black and white photos of

women of different ages and from different time periods. These women are

clothed, with clearer facial features and a stronger sense of identity.

But even these images, which Marvel found at different families’ garage

sales, leave the question of time and place unanswered.

“It starts to be an objective point of view,” Marvel said. “The

viewers read it in the same way they would my wax figure because there

isn’t a sense of identity. They’re idealized and objective in the way

that you can’t tell who these people are.”

A common theme in this part of “Innocents” is the use of half-burnt

match sticks lining each photo. Matches commonly represent a spent life

or a life lived, Marvel said.

“And through the use of combining that imagery, of the matchsticks and

the images of the women, I wanted to show the progression of that child’s

innocence into woman,” she said.

A signature touch in Marvel’s work is her use of blush makeup in wax.

Wax is used in art to elicit a feeling of flesh, she said. When she

sweeps blush across the visceral surface, it brings the material more to

life.

When asked why she cares about how the female form is used, Marvel

said it’s simply because she’s a woman.

“I just started thinking about my position in society and how I was

raised and how I view myself in comparison to what Western civilization

has told me I should be,” said the artist whose company, Slenderfungus,

designs Web sites, merchandise and other products for clients that

include Alanis Morissette and Sinead O’Connor.

Chuck Nicholson, acting photo gallery director at OCC, discovered an

earlier exhibit by Marvel in Santa Monica and invited “Innocents” to the

school.

“I was looking for someone that was doing something a little out of

the ordinary. It’s not obvious. It takes some thought,” he said of her

work. “Some students tend to look at it and don’t know what exactly it

means to begin with, but are intrigued by it.”

FYI

* What: “Innocents”

* When: Through Friday. Gallery hours are 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday

through Wednesday, 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Thursday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday,

and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday.

* Where: Orange Coast College Photo Gallery, 2701 Fairview Road, Costa

Mesa

* Cost: Free

* Call: (714) 432-5520