File:Elise Siegel Portrait 6 1992.jpg

Sculpture by Elise Siegel, Portrait #6 (wire mesh and acrylic modeling paste, 22" × 16" x 6", 1992). The image illustrates an earlier stage and body of work in Elise Siegel's career from the 1990s when she created sculptural constructions resembling female-gendered garments that employed feminist critique and psychological investigation. This body of work referenced the body metaphorically through its absence, as in this piece, in which a corset and tutu doubles as a female torso. It draws a connection between foundational garments that "mold and shape" and the alteration of bodies through plastic surgery, with rough, tangled garment straps resembling medical bandages and wire stitching that evoke struggle, damage, and a sense of horror. This project and similar works have been publicly exhibited in prominent venues and discussed in major art journals and daily press publications.

Artist Elise Siegel. Copyright held by the artist.

Elise Siegel

Entire artwork

Yes

The image serves an informational and educational purpose as the primary means of illustrating an earlier stage and body of work in Elise Siegel's career from the 1990s: her sculptural constructions resembling female-gendered garments, which referenced the body metaphorically through its absence and employed feminist critique and psychological investigation. The garments (skirts, dresses, pinafores, corsets, bras and tutus) used wires suggesting hair to create movement, patched and cracked, pigmented surfaces evoking skin, and straps and stitched wire seams suggesting bandages and psychological/cultural constriction. Critics describe these works as concrete aesthetic parallels to contemporary cultural theory, revealing the role of clothing in definitions and transformations of female identity. Because the article is about an artist and her work, the omission of the image would significantly limit a reader's understanding and ability to visualize this key developmental phase of her career, which brought widespread recognition through exhibitions in major venues and coverage by major critics in publications. Siegel's work of this type and this work in particular is discussed in the article and by prominent critics cited in the article.

There is no free equivalent of this or any other of this series by Elise Siegel, so the image cannot be replaced by a free image.

The image will not affect the value of the original work or limit the copyright holder's rights or ability to distribute the original due to its low resolution and the general workings of the art market, which values the actual work of art. Because of the low resolution, illegal copies could not be made.