naomi fisher  The photographs of Miami-based artist Naomi Fisher document performative actions that merge the artist’s body with nature. Undercurrents of sexuality and violence commingle in her feminist works. Her charged raw images fuse wild women with lush nature and decorative patterning often resulting in nightmarish scenarios. For Fisher, the female body embodies the ferocious feminine aspect of nature. Fisher identifies herself with nature by losing and finding herself in it, both as object and subject.

Kemper Museum Curator Elizabeth Dunbar notes that "Fisher's 'ladies,' as she calls them, are drawn from characters imagined or inspired by horror films, feminist literature, music, mythology, and art history. Her tough-girl images reflect a shift in the representation of women in today's culture, with Xena Warrior Princess, Gwen Stefani, Lara Croft, and other icons of 'grrrl power' on center stage. Fisher's ladies sport high heels and modish dresses, but they do not relinquish their power. They are sexually enticing to men and symbols of strength for women."¹

In Rhinestone Butt, Fisher appears as the victim (or is it perpetrator?) of some sexual act. Close inspection reveals that rhinestones adorn her bottom thereby altering the initial reading of this photograph dramatically. Fisher’s women are not part of the demure, frail, passive victim stereotypes that society still occasionally clings to. Her nature/women are fierce, violent, sexually voracious, and powerful. Yet this power dwells within the female body, which is why so many of Fisher’s photographs do not reveal her subjects' faces. Dunbar writes, "Unapologetically residing in the embattled juncture between violence and beauty, Fisher’s photographs and drawings challenge the viewer’s assumptions about female sexuality and how it is couched in terms of nature. Fisher points to a new kind of feminism for a 21st-century Eden—one that is raw, red, and utterly delicious."²

--Andrea Pollan, Director, Curator’s Office, Washington, DC

¹ Dunbar, Elizabeth. Press Release for “Naomi Fisher: Clear Cut” exhibition at the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, MO. April 15, 2005 ­ July 10, 2005

² Dunbar. Elizabeth. Exhibition brochure for “Naomi Fisher: Clear Cut” exhibition at the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, MO. April 15, 2005 ­ July 10, 2005.