Bunny Hunt
You painted a naked woman because you enjoyed looking at her, put a mirror in her hand and you called the painting “Vanity,” thus morally condemning the woman whose nakedness you had depicted for your pleasure. —John Berger
In this convergence of art and technology, I explore a world of contradictions and moral ambiguities, inviting viewers to question their perceptions of female sexuality and agency. This project opens a conversation about whether any type of female empowerment can truly be derived from a place of male domination.
My journey begins with a deep dive into the archive of Playboy Magazine covers, spanning seven decades of cultural evolution. These covers serve as my medium. I analyze the images using the power of a deep learning model called DeepFace, teasing out patterns in emotions, compositions, and nudity that may otherwise remain hidden from the naked eye. I explore concepts of distant viewing, using artificial intelligence to find stories in large sets of data.
This series of five paintings mixes magical elements in a traditional, canonical setting. Classical art tropes serve as guideposts, leading viewers through the cultural commentary embedded within the covers of Playboy. The odalisques of Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres and Édouard Manet provide direct inspiration for this series. I considered how they depicted seduction and power in their paintings. I also drew from depictions of power as seen in 18th-century English paintings of noblemen on horseback with their hunting dogs below. I reworked these images weaving in contemporary elements to ground the works in the present day.
Blending the two versions of the bunny, both in its classical and Playboy iterations, allows for a recontextualization of the animal and the power structures that it represents. Classically, in art history, bunnies represent female sexuality and fertility. In this series, I use this trope to create a visual language to tell the story of Playboy Magazine. The incorporation of the bunny suit nods to the artificial use of female sexuality to gain power. The person behind the bunny suit is in a position of power both physically and symbolically in the two large paintings. In the center panel lies an empty bunny costume on a storage table. This piece allows the viewer to rest on the image of the worn suit – representing the overuse of female sexuality. The bookending bunnies suggest the glamor and seduction that Playboy originally capitalized on to build its empire.
Playboy's legacy on feminism and sexuality remains deeply contradictory. While claiming to celebrate female sexuality, its business model was predicated on the objectification of women's bodies for profit. Its rhetoric of sexual liberation was undermined by its reinforcement of patriarchal power dynamics and narrow representations of female desirability. The dichotomy between Playboy's professed ideals and its practices exemplifies the complex tensions between concepts of empowerment and exploitation that have long characterized debates around pornography and the commodification of female sexuality. Playboy's complicated relationship with feminism reflects the ongoing struggles to reconcile sexual expression, objectification, and true gender equality. Through this synthesis of AI-driven analysis and traditional art historical inquiry, I bridge the gap between technology and tradition, offering viewers a fresh perspective on the timeless themes of sexuality and power.
