Alice Prin (Kiki de Montparnasse)'s gaze in 'Ballet Mécanique'
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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The gaze of Alice Prin (Kiki de Montparnasse)'s gaze in 'Ballet Mécanique' refers to a film still.
Three minutes and thirty-three seconds into the Dadaist film Ballet Mécanique comes a gaze by Kiki de Montparnasse. The footage is said to be by Man Ray.
The gaze is a concept called into life by Jacques Lacan and in the Anglosphere by Laura Mulvey. The concept was conceived to illustrate patriarchy and some of its adverse effects and to illustrate that male sexuality is a very visual affair.
Kiki's gaze is a female gaze. The female gaze was called into life by another feminist, Germaine Greer. In her book The Beautiful Boy she explains that she intended to defend territory of the marginalised female gaze:
- "Well, I'd like to reclaim for women the right to appreciate the short-lived beauty of boys, real boys, not simpering 30-year-olds with shaved chests."
Another area where a female gaze is a reality is the female nude depicted in paintings. Two defining moments in art history are the Sleeping Venus (c. 1510) by Giorgione and the Venus of Urbino (1538) by Titian. The first model averts here glance/gaze, the second is one of the first paintings where the model stares straight at the viewer, meets his glance. The exhibtionist stares back at the voyeur.
