Hi. I’m Sylvie Kaos, and I paint people.
I want to invite you into my work by discussing contemporary cultural misinterpretations of and misconceptions about the word ‘patriarchy’. The ‘patriarchy’ is not ‘men’. It is the ‘rule of the Father’. It refers to Saturnian ideas of how we should live that have been grandfathered in as ‘common sense’. It is a restrictive idea of life, which gives great power to a few, and no power to the rest. Men are as disempowered under patriarchy as Women. Most men.
The precepts of patriarchy do strange things to society, and even to recorded history. The winning side writes its own version of history, and for us that history is masculine, Western, white, and rich. The rest of us are not in the history books.
Painting reflects that history. Not all paintings. Not all history. It reflects the canon of what we’re allowed to remember. A specific viewpoint. A patriarchal one.
Here’s why that matters.
Painting reflects our values back to us – it examines them, interrogates them, and reflects back to us what we as a society do and do not value. Who is included? Who is excluded? Where are Women in this?
We can trace this by looking at how Women are represented in our media.
Contemporary media images of Women are frequently problematic – we see the image of the supermodel, the image of the sexy nymphet, white middle and upper-class women are the staple of TV, advertising, photography, and the printed image. That the Bechdel Test has become a known thing highlights how Women are represented in media: does a movie or book have at least two women in it? Do they talk to each other? Do they discuss something other than a man?
It is important to present images of Women who look like the spectrum of humanity – different ages, colours, faiths, nationalities, sizes, shapes.
The other primary relationship I see is with who we have painted historically. When pigment was a rare commodity, paintings were reserved for the gods. As global trade began to develop, royalty and government ministers began to be painted. As a western market economy developed, wealthy landowners and the elite classes began to have their portraits painted. I prefer to paint people who have actually done something – for their people, their community, or their country. Aside from Constance Markievicz, these people are not gentry. In most cases they are revolutionaries, who fought due to unconscionable inequalities experienced by their people. In history some have been recast as vigilantes and murderers, but we only get to read one side of history. Essentially, I have not chosen to paint these Women based on their financial or class status.
These Women stood for things beyond commercialism, and frequently in opposition to it – They stood for their countries, for their nations, for their family and friends, for the poor, the oppressed and the abused. They stood up for themselves. They fought for these things, and some of them died for these things.
Constance Markievicz was an Anglo-Irish Countess, politician, revolutionary nationalist, and suffragette. During her lifetime she participated in countless Irish independence causes and played a key role in the Easter Rising of 1916 where she wounded a British sniper. Because of this she was forced to surrender and was put into solitary confinement. Constance served as the Minister for Labour of the Irish Republic for three years, making her one of the first women in the world to hold a cabinet position. She was also the first woman to be elected to the British House of Commons but ended up rejecting the position in line with Sinn Féin abstentionist policy. She was jailed again due to her strong political views. In prison, she and 92 other female prisoners went on hunger strike. She was released a month later.
Nwanyeruwa was an Igbo woman in Nigeria who started the Women’s War—often referred to as the first major challenge to British authority in West Africa during the colonial period. After she was asked about her property by a census collector, Nwanyeruwa began to protest about paying taxes with other women. Over the course of two months, over 25,000 women came together to protest tax changes and the unrestricted power of the Warrant Chiefs. Nwanyeruwa played a key role in keeping the protest non-violent. The women protested with song and dance, “sitting” on the Warrant Chiefs until they eventually resigned. In the end, the British dropped their tax plans and the Women’s War triumphed.
Kathleen Neal Cleaver is currently a professor of American law at Emory College, but she was also an integral member of the Black Panther Party, a revolutionary Black Nationalist and socialist organization, during the 1960’s. Cleaver served as the communications secretary and was the first female member of the Party’s decision-making body. She was also the Party’s spokesperson and press secretary. Kathleen has devoted her life to fighting for racial equality and human rights. At one point, she and other women such as Angela Davis made up two-thirds of the Black Panther Party, contrary to beliefs that the Party was overwhelmingly masculine.
During the Mexican Revolution, it was not uncommon for female soldiers—known as soldaderas, to go into combat and fight alongside men. However, this was during the early 20th century, and the women struggled with prejudice and abuse. One of the most famous soldaderas was Petra Herrera. At the beginning of the revolution, she disguised herself as a man, calling herself Pedro. She kept her identity a secret until she was acknowledged as a great soldier after leading the successful siege on the town of Torreon. Herrera’s impressive accomplishment was never acknowledged because she was a woman. This didn’t hold her back though—Petra left to successfully form a troop of all-female soldiers.
Phoolan Devi’s early years were characterized by several instances of sexual abuse by high-caste men, inspiring her to fight against the caste system in India. At 18, Devi was gang-raped by high-caste bandits. In retaliation, she decided to become a gang-leader herself and seek revenge on her assaulters. In 1981, Devi returned to the village of the incident and executed two of her rapists and 20 other villagers. She evaded the law for two years and finally surrendered in 1983, when she was charged for 48 crimes including murder and kidnapping for ransom. After 11 years in prison, the state government dropped all charges against her and she was elected to parliament in 1994. She was assassinated in 2001 by three upper-caste men at the age of 37.
Most people associate the Cuban Revolution with Che Guevara and Fidel Castro. Unfortunately, few have heard of Celia Sanchez, the woman who played an important role in the famed revolution. The Cuban native joined the struggle against the Batista government following the coup of March 10th, 1952. She was one of the first women to assemble a combat squad and quickly became one of the main decision-makers during the revolution. She was also the founder of the 26th of July Movement—the organization that ultimately overthrew Batista. After the revolution, Celia became the Secretary of the Council of Ministers and served in the Department of Services of the Council of State until her death from lung cancer in 1980.
Only those who search for these Women will find them anywhere in history. They have been missed from the history books, the news stories, the movies.
I wanted to paint my revolutionary heroes – partly because they inspire me, partly because as Women they have been written out of the history books. One of the biggest decisions related to content. My resource images of these Women when they were young were visually stunning. Whether to paint them as young Women, or as mature Women after the most epic events of their lives had drawn to a close, was a problematic choice. Once I had selected the best image of each Woman it became apparent that the mature images were most compelling. Adult Women who in the fullness of time had come to wisdom.
I still have a million revolutionary Women to paint.
Sylvie Kaos [Nov 2019]