Improper of Men and Animals
2024

Single-Channel Video
1 minute, looping


Improper of Men and Animals is a structural film archiving images of women in different horizontal positions. As reclining nudes, prone women are a foundational trope of art history; however, fragile, hysterical, sexy, witchy, sick, and/or defenseless, the prone woman is an icon throughout culture.  “Improper of men and animals” is quoted by the Oxford English Dictionary in the etymology of the word prone. ‘Prone’ may connote bodily position, but it also connotes predilection to. In this second connotation of ‘prone woman’, I find potential for power.


©2025 Nancy Nowacek
Nancy Nowacek artist is a research-based artist, designer, and educator working in visual art, public art, social practice, and socially-engaged contexts.