Venus vs Mars

Venus vs. Mars PAPERCUTMAG.COM

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Venus vs. Mars THE TEAM MANAGING EDITOR Jamall Oluokun DESIGN DIRECTOR Margaret Walsh ARTISTIC DIRECTOR Samayah Jaramillo COPY EDITOR Karlee Kapler

If Men are from Mars and Women are from Venus, then 2017 kicked off the start of an interplanetary battle of the sexes. From the women's march on Washington, to female drivers in the Middle East, and the fall of Hollywood male royalty, the matriarchal rebellion has found the Death Star plans.

Yet while current headlines paint a picture of the patriarchy in decline, they're far from losing the war. Women are still paid less than men for the same work, boardrooms and public offices across the globe are still dominated by humans with a Y chromosome, and many women in Third World countries aren't allowed to work, hold office, or go to school, and suffer from rampant domestic abuse, rape, kidnapping, and slavery.

For this issue, in collaboration with Ello and their creative community, we curated an amazing selection of works that explore the gender wars across cultural, political, physiological, international, and economic battle lines. Our aim is to ignite a dialogue and open minds to the issues that women, men, and all genders face around the world.

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photography : Diego Rueda

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Contents Symbiosis............................................................6 Strap...................................................................20 Modern Beauty................................................22 Martian Feminist.............................................26 Identity..............................................................36 Abdo Hassan................................................... 40 Hands Off..........................................................42 My Girls & Dinosaurs.....................................56 Dark Ages........................................................ 60 The Pilot Girls.................................................. 64 Hello Venus!.....................................................70 Night Collage.................................................. 80 Mari San Martin............................................. 86 Nastia Zabrodina............................................88 Sacred Geometry........................................... 90 Rise.................................................................... 96

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Symbiosis photography: Aleksander Salski

digital artwork: Ania Augustynowicz styling: Ania Akińcza make up: Kasia Biały hair: Ewa Pieczarka

models: Julia Śmigielska and Mateusz Zapotocki retouching: Anna Bors

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We begin life in the womb with a biological gender, but not a societal one. Upon birth, the battle lines are drawn and we’re forced to pick sides in the gender wars that none of us can win. People will manipulate us into fulfilling specific gender roles based on their own beliefs. Our only solution is to abandon these ideas and live in perfect symbiosis.

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Strap artwork and words:

Luigi Argiuolo

I want to be provocative. In this new paradigm of gender fluidity, gender definitions, transexual-controversy, and Drag-Queens ruling "entertainment" — do we really want to keep on talking about Venus vs Mars?

Venus can be Mars.

Mars can be Venus.

Let's open ourselves to a more complete vision of equality, understanding that it's always a matter of roles.

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Modern Beauty artwork and words:

Betty Klaasse

My work tests the boundaries of realism and surrealism, exploring possible worlds. I take everyday images from old magazines and redesign them to surprise, amuse or give food for thought.

Rearranging these images is my way of questioning our attitude towards reality, our desires, fears and subconscious.

As an artist, I like to question the role of female beauty and beauty standards in modern-day society. I like to think my work is a whimsical attempt to empower other women as we pursue freedom, choice and equality in every aspect of life.

Honk 22

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Pet Woman

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Face Engineer

Road Blocks

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Grandma's Birthday

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The Martian Feminist photography : Anna Osk

model : Sir @ Kult Models

accessories: Robyn Woodrow makeup: Valentina Pintus

stylists: AOE and Jessica Ewings assistant : Tom Evans

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Identity artwork and words: Craig Cloutier

Where does "I" begin and end? Which figments of our existence do we express as we move through the world?

Which do we hide away? Which bubble up unbidden from somewhere deep? Which do we allow to be pasted on by social circumstance? My work begins as a pure celebration of being. A state of wonder in the face of humans and our complicated, beautiful relationship with the world and ourselves. I am fascinated by the ways in which we define, locate, and measure our identities.

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The self will always be an ever-changing pastiche despite one's efforts to create a unified and consistent persona.

In this era of personal branding, social media avatars and identity politics the obsession with defining the parameters of identity obscures the fundamental truth of an infinite dynamic self. One risks shutting off fruitful paths of possibility and relationship hidden behind the veil of defined persona. My work ends with a personal reminder of the illusory nature of identity, the myriad potentials appearing and transforming, and the power of opening oneself to all of it.

At the Edge

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Public Private Pool 38

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Seafaring

Emerging PAPERCUTMAG.COM

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ABDO HASSAN This collage expresses how women are portrayed as products for purchase when marriage is offered. The men view and treat women as merchandise when looking for a bride.

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Hands Off photography : Joelle Rosen

model : Erin Henry @ Freedom Models LA

Styling: Molly Webb @ Spin Style Agency

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Bruce is frustrated by Vivian’s indifference to housework

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My Girls and Dinosaurs artwork and words:

Danielle Cole

Advertisements will tell women they are heroic, so long as they know their place: perched on a couch looking longingly at the latest in vacuum technology, bending over a stove in awe of all of the space for home cooked meals, or wide-eyed staring into a fridge that has a separate spot just for dairy products. These are the places where a woman can shine. The kitchen is where she is most celebrated. Men on the other hand, are surrounded by big machines and sometimes meat. As men and women move together into this brave new world of gender equality, there is still a struggle about household chores and parental obligations. My work explores the absurdity of domestic roles and the way in which men and women are gently declining to pick up their gender specific accessories.

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Roger feels that Cynthia doesn’t appreciate him

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Ryan and Tabitha negotiate carpooling

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Dark Ages artwork:

Danielle Cole

Flyboy 60

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Let’s clean this place up

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Communication officer 62

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The Pilot Girls artwork and words:

Kathrin Longhurst

My work aims to reshape the image of women from being a passive object of admiration or desire to one of an agent, actively participating in her world and responsible and in charge of her own life. Over many years I have been using the symbolism of military uniforms and accessories to attribute a sense of strength and power to female subjects. The visual language was derived from a childhood spent behind the iron curtain in East Berlin. Poses and visual references are taken from the communist propaganda paintings, dominant in the art collection of the Palace of the Republic. The subjects often tower over the viewers as if untouchable.

My current series features the “pilot girl� in particular. She is symbolic for modern day women, who are freedom fighters, daredevils and rebels. The act of flying carries so many associations to humans not only relating to space travel, pioneering and exploration but also to the feeling of being weightless and above earthly problems and concerns.

I see many parallels to our current times in a highly volatile world that carries so many threats and dangers. All that we can do is take a leap of faith and jump. Once you have made that step there is no turning back and you will have to accept the path you have taken wholeheartedly.

Catch Me if I Fall 64

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Like the Wind

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Pilot Girl Revisited VII

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Into the Unknown

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Jet Girl Revisited

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Valentina

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Hello Venus!

So, How does happiness look on you?

Can you see it in your gestures Following your path, In the joy of unwrapping Your philosophy And completing in front of your eyes?

How does it look?

Through the dance of moves And glittering thoughts Wandering like dots On the contours of a smile?

It`s up to you. (written by Ovidiu Mihai Condrea)

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fashion and styling: Abraham

art director: Alexandru Nimurad

writer and director: Răzvan Macovei photograper: Vlad Bîrdu

casting: Silvana Mihai & Daniela (MUR Model

Management) hair stylist: Alex Șomandroiu make-up artist: Mihaela Cherciu

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director of photography: Laurențiu Răducanu video editor: Alexandru Căpătoiu sound design: Alex Istrate music: Aurel Ciucur

men in black: Florin Tanase, Jesuany Gomez, Relu Dobrin

camera assistant: Cosmin Filișan

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choreographer: Irina Strungăreanu

on-set photographer: Adi Tudose

manifesto author: Ovidiu Mihai Condrea

special thanks: Deschis Gastrobar, Tipografia Everest, NOD Makerspace

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Night Collage artwork and words:

Serge Nehaev

We live in an amazing time when gender relations are improving. People are becoming more free. Some are even consciously changing genders. However, with all this progress, it's still important to remain responsible to each other and respect the feelings and opinions of others.

The topic of gender equality is of particular importance in Russia, where the rights of women are often infringed upon. They are subjected to violence both at home and at work with little protection from the courts.

It is necessary to boldly discuss these acute topics, learn to forgive and not commit new violence. This will help us build a truly creative and happy civilization that will be able to solve many problems.

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Family Idyll

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Extreme Swimming

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Missed Call

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Libido

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The Faraway Side

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Mari San Martin 86

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Tyranny of the body

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Evolutionary game: random hope

Nastia Zabrodina My visual personas exist in a world without borders. My characters lack nationality, race, clothes and sometimes gender. The skin of my subjects are often red like the colors of blood, with electric wires for veins. And they strike up friendships with any creature that speaks in the language of symbols and colors.

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Sacred Geometry artwork and words:

Jesse Murch

models:

Kayla Savage, Jennie Barron, Chelsea Sinclair, Kirsten Valania, Sara Asman

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I have always, because of my OCD, experienced a calming and empowering notion when it comes to symmetry.

Shapes and lines fit together and create something greater, stronger, and calmer than before.

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I have always, because of my OCD, experienced a calming and empowering notion when it comes to symmetry.

Shapes and lines fit together and create something greater, stronger, and calmer than before.

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“Sacred Geometry� combines my fascination in symmetry with the desire to spread a message of unity.

Women, now more than ever need to stick together.

They are the creators, the building blocks of all life and together are eternal, empowered, and strong.

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Rise

artwork and words:

Josh Rose

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As a father of a 13-year old girl, the women’s march was an especially emotional and personal subject for me. After the election, a lot of people that I am close with were feeling scared and unsupported. My approach with any series is to find a symbolic truth that becomes a through line element for the images and holds them together as a series. In the case

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of the march, I noticed girls on their parents’ shoulders and was drawn to capture that most symbolic gesture. The physical raising up of our children seemed to combine organically with the raising of awareness and the rising up of a resistance movement. The series is meant to capture this powerful moment of a community coming together and re-claiming its strength.

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Join the Conversation @papercutmag

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