Chelsea Swan

I was asked the the one to one why I take photos of my partner. What relevance it has to my practice. I said something very vague and incoherent. I don’t really have an answer. Possibilities are:

• because I think its funny putting him in these positions. He takes on the role of the women in these old ‘masterworks’ if people see that as embarassing or that I am degrading him then in sort of highlights their gender bias that being a woman is lesser than.
• I also put myself in the position of the master and make myself the artist, a term I have always felt I do not deserve.
• He gets to expolre his sexuality in a way that women can but me cant. He can explore the elements of himself concidered too feminine in society and gets to fully reallise and create himself.
• It makes other men uncomfortable to see a man naked, as well as some women. His body and sexuallity are a threat. I think it shows the fear women have, the implied threat of a naked man you do not know. It also shows the shame in their own bodies and the fear of ‘gayness’ men live with.
• Because I dont have a female model so I have to explore these ideas through what I can freely have. Much women artists and writers have been unable to inhabit and explore the world in the way men have for the majority of history. It has held their work back and they have felt it. I live within my world, within what I have free and easy acess to, I show what I see and what I feel through the natural course of my life and the spaces I inhabit.
• Because I get sick of seeing my own body. I use it a lot and I do fight for acceptance of all shapes and sizes but I grew up in the 2000’s with an eating disorder. I was a stick figure. My body is messed up from it. I cannot see myself separate to the brainwashing. I can intercept it and not engage with it but it is still there. Sometimes it isn’t good for me to see myself. If I can use my partner’s body to explore ideas I will.

Anyway I like to take pictures mimicking the poses taken on by women in the paintings of old masters. It’s a bit of fun I like to have when we find ourselves with free time. It is play and fantasy and fun. Although it incorporates nudity it is not sexual. It is just dress up and exploring roles and characters.