“I’ve Got the Job of Being a Woman”, Hollis Sigler (1982)
Hollis Sigler (1948-2001) is a leading feminist artist and Professor of Art at Columbia College in Chicago. She usually uses a faux naïf style in her paintings. Faux naïf is one of the modern styles that is adopting the art of children or is called a child-like style.
I’ve Got the Job of Being a Woman (1982) depicts scattered objects, like a mirror, desk, chair, child toys, high heel shoes, and a dressing table with sharp broken glass shards everywhere. A statue of a woman, similar to the ancient sculpture “the Venus of Arles”, stands in one of the mountain peaks.
Singler’s oil pastel drawing portrays ‘the double burden’ of women. In many families, although women work in paid labor, they cannot leave domestic or household work. Women are still expected to finish all of these works by themselves alone. The double burden is symbolized by the scattered things that are related to child-caring, household chores, and office works.
The burden is getting heavier with the demands of beauty standards. In this drawing, it is epitomized by a broken mirror on the dressing table. Sigler expressed the precarious situation of women through the broken glass shards.
The statue of Venus in a mountain peak is a visual surrogate of women’s resistance. In Roman mythology, Venus is not only a goddess of love, beauty, fertility but also victory. She was a counterpart to the Greek Aphrodite that was also honored as a goddess of war in some places.
Hollis Sigler explored the experience of being a woman, in many situations, like in family, work-place, and society. Her work is also a social commentary against the patriarchal structure.