Fifty-four years ago, a book about erotic submission became one of the most widely read French novels. The story was and remains controversial. Today, artist Natalie Frank recreates the book’s main scenes in drawings at New York’s Half Gallery through June 16. Vice says, “While Story of O has been rejected by many traditional feminists, Frank sees it as a testament to female empowerment, the nuances of desire, and sex positivity.”
In an interview with Vice, Frank proclaims:
I hope my work, this body of drawings as well as my past ten years of work, provokes the viewer to question and examine our constructions of gender and identity, sexuality, and hierarchies of power. Consent is foremost. And it’s a fundamental part of Story of O and of all of the positions I put women in in drawings and paintings. What do we submit to? What do we desire? As women, our complexities haven’t been afforded the attention and empathy that men’s have. I want to speak to this. There is a massive gray space which we are just starting to talk about in terms of female sexuality—and the toxic masculinity and abuse of power that women and others have endured in silence for far, far too long. O speaks to the female erotic imagination, and there is power in reclaiming a space that has been denied women.
The exhibit will last just through Saturday. Whether one finds O erotic or not, it’s certainly a commentary on sexuality, submission, and empowerment. The Half Gallery is located at 43 E 78th St, New York, NY 10075.
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