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Hannah Hocke

The years between 1918 and 1933 were known as the Weimar years, it was during these years that Hannah Hoch created a remarkable group of photomontages that exemplify the response to the New Woman ( Lavin p5).   In her work entitled " Dada-Ernst" Hoch visually depicts the conflicts Weimar woman faced in relationship to modernity.
The work " Dada-Ernst" was created between 1920 and 1921. When looked upon for the first time "Dada-Ernst" could be considered to be a celebration of the New Woman but it is with this single image that Hoch challenges the representation of the female. (Lavin , pg 6.) Straddling the right side of the image, dominating the composition, are a pair of truncated female legs. Replacing the pubic region of the legs is a man's eye pasted at an angle. Pasted over the eye, but not covering it, are two gold coins; the brightest emblems in the montage. The female's oversized severed legs are positioned right over the woman in the ball gown, as if straddling her, and the machine part links the money at the pubic region with the head of the gymnast. In this montage Hoch purposely ripped images out of context , and roughly joined them together with other images. Her method   connotes a violence that is underlined by the "resemblance of a large bow-like machine part to a saw and the severing of the female legs from the body." ( Levin p6) This image is said to produce anger in those who view it because of the violent juxtaposition of metal and flesh, in combination with the " commodity status of the disembodied signs of femininity."   ( Noun p26) Through content and form Hoch manages to show montage in a new light, one that produces anger in the viewer. The image owns a disorientating variety in perspective, the disjunctive variations in scale, the interruptions of contours, and the visibility of the seams. It is also said that Dada-Ernst represents female pleasure through pose of the crouching female gymnast who appears ready to spring forward. (Levin,...