Ellen Schippers' '7 Faces of Women': A Video Art Series Exploring Womanhood in a Patriarchal Society

Dutch artist Ellen Schippers has been creating provocative art since the 1980s. She frequently pendulums back and forth between film, fashion and art. This led to the birth of the 7 Faces of Women, a theatrical video art series which looks at the different roles that women must take on in a patriarchal society. Despite the artist presenting no real order to the chaos, it is easy to chart a path between the videos, which seem to follow a single woman from birth to death before she is finally reborn as a phoenix from the ashes. 

Schipper’s video art blends high-fashion latex costumes with enigmatic and profound movements, all done by Schippers herself or by trained performers. They tell a tale of a conventional European woman, who, despite being more privileged than women of colour, is still subjected to an array of discrimination in a patriarchal society. The films look at disparities such as gender roles, the gender pay gap and gender-based beauty standards, highlighting them and raising people’s awareness of how all women are still discriminated against. This is why 7 Faces of Women by Ellen Schippers is relevant to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal of Gender Equality.

Each video in the series looks at a different aspect of a woman’s life. It begins at birth, during the Creation of a Woman. In this film, a mother, wearing a latex suit and a kabuki mask—traditional Japanese play masks— gives birth on stage. The mother peels layers of latex from her skin, pushing audiences to look away. Her birth is not a straightforward one, making audiences question if she is giving birth to a child or a new version of herself. 

The piece is a reflection on the ambivalent nature of motherhood, one that is revered by society. Yet, a mother’s pain and issues such as postpartum depression and other medical complications are often overlooked. In fact, the Imperial College London found that less than 2 percent of the world’s medical research funding is spent studying pregnancy, childbirth and female reproductive health.

In Geisha The Experience, a woman’s make-up routine is projected onto the latex skirt of another. This piece questions the impossible beauty standards that women are pinned against, often making them question their self-worth and driving them into body dysmorphia, a mental illness in which a person obsessively focuses on the perceived flaws of their appearance.

Water Nymph and Phoenix, on the other hand, complement each other. One tells the story of a nymph who lives in cages made of its own body and yet it is this very body that is able to water and nourish its surroundings. This is a symbol of how, despite women being oppressed in a patriarchal society, they are still the appointed caregivers. So much of life depends on women giving themselves away. In Phoenix this cycle finally comes to an end. The woman dies and from her ashes rises an unknown creature, a phoenix whose behaviour is unpredictable and promises to break free from the shackles of the patriarchy.

Find out more about 7 Faces of Women by Ellen Schippers and their other pieces by checking her website at www.EllenSchippers.com.