The diffuse and silvery shoreline provides the liminal space, between land and sea, the setting for a contemplation of female subjectivity and the myth of the mermaid. Either nude, or attired in beach wear, women toy with the common blurring between the depiction of women at leisure, the art historical female nude and Mer/water mythology. Not strictly mermaids but sometimes with minor mutation, the women suggest a Piscean dimension primarily through their postures and subtle characteristics. Displaying an affinity with fish is coupled with the return of the gaze, questioning our perceptions of human and marine conflations. To occupy the space between the grounded world and the expansiveness of the sea, is to suggest she is suspended between humanity and inhumanity, between a patriarchal and a feminine space, the alien and the ordinary, the real, and realm of fantasy.
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Cathy with calamari
Louise with grouper fish
Vicky with flying fish
Christina with crustaceans
Louise with cuttlefish
Vanessa with lobster