"Intimacy and Darkness” in Zenta Dzividzinska’s photographs

One of Latvia’s foremost feminist scholars, Jana Kukaine, discusses Zenta Dzividzinska’s photographs in her latest article:

Kukaine, J. "Intimacy and Darkness: Feminist Sensibility in (Post)socialist Art," Arts (Special Issue Around/Beyond Feminist Aesthetics) 12, no. 1 (2023): 24. Open access.

Download and read it now:  https://doi.org/10.3390/arts12010024

Brief excerpt from Jana Kukaine’s article:

“A similar “para-feminist” stand can be attributed to ZDZ’s series of self-portraits, created in the same decade (Figure 1). According to Tīfentāle, these images, where the artist experiments with photographic and optic means (e.g., fish-eye lenses and distorting reflections), in order to produce rather unflattering depictions of her body, not only predate the subgenre of self-portraiture known as the “selfie” but also question the assumption that women in photography have to look pretty. Thus a “para-feminist” attitude upholds the aesthetic category of unsightly, unattractive, and even ridiculous femininity, which can be viewed as part of “a broader, transnational narrative of “soft” or “quiet” resistance” (Tīfentale 2021). These adjectives, as will be demonstrated later, are rather telling and significant for postsocialist feminist sensibilities.”

Read the full article here: https://doi.org/10.3390/arts12010024