Artistic intentions:
Julie Rrap b. 1950 is a contemporary Australian artist. Rraps’ intentions as an artist revolve around deconstruction of the female role; its signification and assumed ideology. Her intentions are presented in her artwork, often through appropriation or discourse. Throughout European culture ‘female’ has been characterised as ‘less than’ in areas ranging from subservience in the bible (genesis) to objectivity in art history.
Disclosures (1982) is an early exhibition by Rrap. Taking influence from European nude oil paintings the work explores the objectivity and disempowerment of the subjects within them. The work is a collection of Cibrachrome prints depicting Rrap and her studio from two different viewpoints; a camera around Rraps’ neck (the subject) photographing the secondary viewpoint; a camera mounted on a tripod and aimed back at Rrap (the creator). Rrap, who is in control of both cameras’ simultaneously assumes both roles; the artist and the subject. The represented presence of both artist and subject within the work pose conflicting significance. Such conflicting significance highlights Rraps intentions to highlight the relationship between the two parties; the Artist as the architect, the controller historically male assumed and the nude subject, the object, the passive historically female assumed. Clearly as Rrap conveys through Disclosures there is discordance between these two parties, by assuming both
