I'm still looking forward to watching Aronofsky's Black Swan. It follows a long tradition of combining female bodies with those of birds: from the Greek myth of Leda and the Swan and the bird-like Sirens to Walt Disney's Fantasia and the dancing ostriches.
Male bodies are not impervious to this osmotic relationship but they are mostly transformed by the "mere acquisition" of a pair of wings (from the Greek Hermes to the Hawkmen in Flash Gordon).
Women go through a deeper transformation which may not include the ability to fly but might require some physical change or imply some mental disturbance.
Paula Rego looked at those delicate ostriches in Fantasia and changed them into some improbable ballerinas. These Dancing Ostriches have a delicate quality to them, suggested by the tulle and the light on their pink pointe shoes but don't expect them to dance. As a group you expect them to leap around, trying pas de chat. And you expect them to laugh about it at the same time. Unlike the more daunting paintings of Paula Rego, these are strangely cheerful characters. A lighter form of grotesque, maybe?
Paula Rego, Dancing Ostriches, 1995
Pastel on paper mounted on aluminium.162 x 155 cm
While I wait for the Black Swan, I'll indulge in some Dancing Ostriches.
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