Week 7: Isis Rodriguez

One of the images that I will be presenting on is Isis Rodriguez's Freedom (1997). Isis Rodriguez was born in Los Angeles and raised in Topeka, Kansas. After graduating from the University of Kansas with a bachelor of fine arts in painting, Rodriguez moved to San Francisco to pursue her career as an artist, where she became fascinated by underground comics and exotic dancing so that she became an exotic dancer to investigate sex positive feminism. Her first controversial solo show "My Life as a Comic Stripper" debuted in 1997, where she was credited as being one of the few female artists to ever discuss the sex industry in her work. Freedom is part of a series that uses cartoon as a tool to discuss issues about the politics of exotic dancing. It focuses on the empowerment and liberation of women. This piece depicts a self-portrait of Rodriguez wearing black elbow-length gloves, thigh-high fishnet stockings, and lace-up leather boots. From the head of the cartoon, the Virgen de Guadalupe emerges, while a smaller self-portrait of Rodriguez circles around her on a motorcycle. In the background of the painting are cartoon images. Rodriguez's intention with this piece was to demystify the sex industry and to identify it as a labor issue. By including the Virgen as a symbol, Rodriguez shows how she functions in the role of protector. She is the conscious in her head, watching over her. Rodriguez wishes to show that while she may be an exotic dancer, this doesn't mean that her body is no longer a temple. As an exotic dancer, she still holds things sacred to her and her integrity still exists in her, no matter what she does in her life.