Schrager takes the representation of self in digital culture as an art form in order to critique the patriarchally skewed consumption of the female body in art/media. In doing so, she attempts to change the power dynamics inherent in female representation, female self-representation and male presentation of the female form. She is challenging the a-sexualised or desexualised representation of celebrity in media and the repercussions and backlash against the sexualised body and its monetisation.
Schrager is forward thinking in the evolution of female representation in media. This evolution of self-representation becomes a chaotic one when the internet and social media become the number one way of representing oneself. Also, the moment where the iPhone came out with reversible lens, changing the camera/subject dynamics and the ability to actively participate in our own representation. I guess the history of self-portraiture is long, but this is an interesting time where ‘self-portraiture’ will always be tied to the ‘selfie’, the ‘high-art’ to the low brow representation of self. and the only difference is possibly its placement: facebook, insta, gallery, biennale. This embracing of ‘low-brow’ self-representation by women like Schrager, Soda and Calypso is a moment where women are embracing femininity in all of its forms and using it as a powerful weapon against conforming to feminine ideals, but simultaneously not being apologetic for every aspect of femininity.
Separating her online personas into two categories - face girl and ass girl. A micro “male gaze” focused on one category. Ignoring the patriarchal lense through which the female artist is viewed, “she’s not looking to disrupt the highly visual, deeply entrenched, highly-calibrated male gaze in terms of how it engages with the unabashed, male-seducing, sex-kitten “Ass-Girl,” ONA.” https://whitehotmagazine.com/articles/leah-schrager-manifestations/4158
Rethinking female sexuality in the media and online. Face girls a “desexualised facade that is sold to the masses” because it is the female performers only option.
New media allows the females to create and profit from their own constructed self-image, can be sexualised and sexuality can be normalised. https://www.facebook.com/leah.schrager/posts/10107255088581228
An institutional critique of the female body and its depiction online, image appropriation and self-exposure. Ownership and control - model, photographer, artist.
…She's called this effect, in which women's images of themselves are ascribed artistic and market value by their function in the work of male artists, like Richard Prince and Ryder Ripps, "man hands." https://garage.vice.com/en_us/article/vb9aka/leah-schrager-body-art
“questioning the gap in value and representation between male and female artists”
Essay by Schrager - http://bodyanxiety.com/leah/
