Woman-as-mother, Madonna, temptress, sex worker, martyr, saint or goddess are classical motifs that have been painted and sculpted throughout art history from a predominantly male gaze, resulting in the historical fixity of women’s gestures and the objectification of the body. 

Allegory of the Painted Woman began in 2012 when Alexis Blake went to Rome to research and build an archive of women’s poses found in historic Italian paintings and sculptures, ranging from the Renaissance to early Modernism. The archive was then translated into a choreography, and now into a book, as ways to question gendered archetypal roles, representation, reproduction and seriality. 

Through essays and a polyphonic index section where different authors engage with this archive of poses from the choreography, the book expands on the eponymous performance piece.