The Artist and Challenging the Patriarchy

Further, Kruger’s work Untitled (Your gaze hits the side of my face), created in 1981 shows an appropriation of a classical statue of an idealised and perfect woman with the caption “your gaze hits the side of my face” superimposed over the image. Kruger’s work addresses the concept of the male voyeuristic gaze and the instant objectification of said gaze when viewing a woman; seen as a power that transforms women into commodities and objects without sentient thought.

Within the artwork there is the allusion to the possibility of metaphorical abuse occurring due to the voyeuristic gaze as it is “unclear if the subject’s face has a harmless shadow or a large bruise across her cheek” [Leimer & Bartush 2014 ], expressing that the male gaze can afflict damage upon women even from a distance. Kruger also creates the possibility of the male gaze affecting women throughout time through the implication that the gaze can affect society’s actions towards women, expressed by the use of a classical image, in order to bring attention to the injustice of the widespread assumptions held about women. The piece also challenges this widely held view of the complete control of the male gaze, conveying the holistic and human nature of women while suggesting that women are not required to be displayed for the male gaze or give in to the desires of men. “Kruger implies the strength and control women possess when it comes to the power of men” [Leimer & Bartush 2014]. The stony nature of the woman is subverted to portray that she is strong and powerful against the male gaze, not just an idealised form to peer at. The artwork explicates that although the figure has been placed under the male gaze, she is unaffected by it and able to resist. Kruger’s Untitled (Your gaze hits the side of my face) is conveying that women are powerful in their own right, enough to acknowledge the gaze but not let it impact them, as the male gaze is merely a “nuisance”. Evidently, Kruger’s work conveys the feminist ideology of showing the female as more than an object to be seen through a voyeuristic gaze, unbreakable and strong in the face of challenges from the patriarchy. Kate Linker states that Kruger wants to “welcome the female spectator into the audience of men” in order to “ruin certain representations” of women through the male gaze.