Paleo Pin Up Series

Brash, funny, and provocative, Paula Gillen’s Paleontology Pin Up Series is an eclectic and aesthetic mash-up of pre-historic landscapes, women’s bodies, weaponry, gadgetry and the gaze. In line with the great collage artists of the 20th century (such as Hannah Höch, John Heartfield, and Martha Rosler) and an inherently Dadaist spirit that aims to both disorient and liberate, Gillen’s compositions evoke surrealism and feminism in their ideological deconstruction of a male-oriented visual culture. Pin-up girls, race cars, and the ever-lasting march to war coincide with dinosaurs and camera lenses amidst the vivid backdrop of Czech artist Zdeněk Burian’s paleo era illustrations. The result is a bold re-visioning of our species and sexuality in the context of patriarchy, pornography, and the photographic apparatus. - written by critic Shira Segal