N NOWACEK

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.