Hadassah Emmerich Dutch, b. 1974
Cancan, 2019
Oil on Linen
180 cm x 135 cm
In ‘Cancan’, sections of bodies, from thigh to torso, abruptly cut just below the ribs, are displayed doing the signature pose of Cancan dance, one leg kicking upwards. These rows of partial bodies are then duplicated and flipped upside down. The legs that are kicked up merges with the adjacent legs on top of it. The repetition of dancing human bodies in Hadassah’s monoprints, create patterns, abstraction, and variation, entrancing its audiences. Just like the Cancan dancers are aware that they are lifting their skirt and exposing their legs, -its intentionality and awareness ruin the voyeuristic experience for those who seek it, Hadassah’s subversive nudes are aware that they are playing with desires, both colonial and sexual, empoweredly flirty.
Hadassah declares decoration as a statement. Exotic bodies, especially feminine ones are often associated with the desire for something ‘fertile’; the bodies, in this case, are not limited to just human bodies, but also land and vegetations. Hadassah comments on this ‘tropical’ imagination and expectation through her ongoing series featuring clusters of tesselated female bodies, abstracted through repetition. This concept of abstraction also appears in her method of art-making which is vinyl monoprints, where there is always a new outcome produced from the same template. The title of the painting itself is derived from the Cancan dance that features a similar ‘patterning’ effect with its costume and movements.
