The definition of objectification is simply put as degrading someone to the status of a mere object. Throughout time, painters, sculptors, photographers, designers and directors often use objectification as the subject of their art. Each artist explores an aspect of objectification by combining their own interpretation and personal background to create something unique in order to invoke an idea or create a conflicted conversation. The following list of artists all use objectification within their respective bodies of work.
Allen Jones, a British contemporary artist who uses the female bodies as subjects in his sculpture works. Females are frequently shown in leather corsets, gloves, high heels, and sometimes rubber caps while being on all fours serving as a table, a chair, or standing straight as a clothing rack. His work encompassed the ideology of the male gaze of female bodies and the modern take of general fetish culture. Women lost their human identity in his works, they were simply diminished to pieces of furniture.
French designer, Thierry Mugler, creative director of the House of Mugler. Throughout his career, his work has been criticized as too provocative and too sexual. In his clothing pieces, women are portrayed as a symbol of desire and a fulfillment of male fantasy. His signature thin waisted corset contour and over accentuated womens breasts all served as elements of his expression. High heels and exposed skin are not seen solely as pornographic depictions, instead as a breakthrough of self expression.
Pierre et Gilles, French painter and photographer partners. In their hyper realistic photography works, young men and women are always depicted in the manner of a mannequin. Being posed in stiff positions, eyes gazed off into the distance with emotionless looks on their faces. Examples like Vive la France 2006, the artists strip away the human expression of their models. In a way humans become symbolic objects and only serve the purpose of the overall photographic concept.
Takashi Murakami, one of the most influential contemporary artists of our time, portrayed anime inspired young men and women with a sexual manner in his early sculpture works like My Lonesome Cowboy 1998 and Hiropon 1997. His jokey interpretation of objectification symbolizes a rebellious take towards the pressure of society in our generation also in his words the Superflat movement. Objectification in his controversial works becomes a tool for creating an ongoing dialogue and leading people into a deeper subject discussion.
Canadian filmmaker, Denis Villeneuve, in his 2017 blockbuster film Blade Runner 2049 discusses the boundaries between replicants and humans. Replicants are depicted in an emotionless and robotic manner. They are created to follow orders without personal judgment. In a sense, they are seen and treated as objects, belonging to humans. Throughout the film, one idea pushes the plot moving forward, what makes a human human. The mere objectification in a social context gives viewers a chance to reflect and rethink.
Besides the artists that are listed above, there are countless other great visionaries that express the idea of objectification with their art. Artists like American photographer and director, David LaChapelle, and French designer and photographer, Jean-Paul Goude, etc. In our generation, art objectification is not merely a sexual term anymore. It is on the opposite end of the spectrum, now it carries a much deeper cultural context that bequeathed from generation to generation of artists.