Wednesday 9 February 2011

Artists addressing identity

Explain the ideas that artists are trying to represent about identity and how they’re expressed.




In this essay I will discuss the theme of identity in a single piece of work by two separate artists.

The first is “Dead Marilyn” 2008 by Marlene Dumas. This piece struck me immediately because I’d previously seen the original photograph in its true context, when reading Marilyn Monroe’s biography. The photograph shows Marilyn on the autopsy table after the pathologist had performed the postmortem. The book states that it was the pathologist’s work that “caused the face to sag” and insists that “before the procedure… the lifeless Marilyn remained beautiful”. I feel there’s something incredibly worrying in the fact that a persons overall unattractiveness has to be justified to a public consumer, even in death.
I think that it’s remarkably bold for Dumas to recreate an image of the icon that is so unlike the mass media photographs and broadcasts see on television and in magazines. Contrary to the carefully crafted image of beauty and glamour that the public are so used to seeing; the painting is explicit in showing the subjects many flaws.

Unlike the original 2d snapshot, Dumas introduces another dimension of weight and feeling that awakens the viewer to a sense of reality. The image allows us to see the imperfections concealed during her life time.

I find it interesting that much of Dumas other work contains sexually explicit imagery with elements of seduction as the subjects are known to look directly at the viewer while holding erotic poses. However, Dumas hasn’t opted for taking the expected route of showing the famous sex symbol in a similar way, instead the subject is unaware, unselfconscious and serene, as though in sleep.

Her recreation of the original photograph has restored the image, while often abstracting the context. If you were unaware of the images content, you may think that it’s an innocent painting of a sleeping person despite the accurate interpretation and strong emotional relationship that remains with the viewer.

Another striking aspect of the painting is the colours she chooses to use. The palette is limited, opting for a range of just blue and grey, though the variation of tones is so broad that the image becomes more graphic and moving than the original photograph. The variety of brushstrokes used to create the texture and depth is excessive though somehow soft in areas, and delicate.

The profile angle effectively sparks a curiosity in the viewer. It’s not an angle that the public are used to seeing in the media. Although it’s a close up, it’s not as intrusive and uncomfortable to the viewer as it would be if taken from above, or facing straight on.   

Dumas work is heavily influenced by her experience of being born in South Africa during the 1960’s and 1970’s, as well as her time living in Amsterdam . The subjects in many of her portraits include her lovers, daughter, friends and people found in the media particularly photography and film.
It is said that Dumas stumbled across the photograph while rummaging through an old file of media images, and so can’t be entirely sure that the file isn’t a fake. Moreover, the figure is entirely unrecognizable with matted hair and bruised, saggy skin. 


The next piece is one from Lynn Hershman Leeson’s “phantom limb series”, titled “Reach”. It’s a black and white photograph of a woman on a bed, sitting up on her knees while reaching forward. Most important to take from the image is that her face is entirely obscured by a huge oversized camera.

It’s ironic that the woman’s face and identity is hidden by the object trying to catch her picture in the first place. I think it poses a question about how digital photography and other media is blurring the finer details and distinctions between real life and the art form that is it presented to consumers in.
Also by blending human and machine, we become one object with perhaps distorted ideas of how we ourselves should be, and present ourselves to others.
 
I find it interesting how Leeson seems to have taken every aspect of the photograph, and stripped away all areas of the subject’s personality until there is nothing but a human like shell, with a camera balanced on top.

The lack of colors makes the finer details undistinguished with a bare, minimalist background and the woman dressed in the most basic of clothing.

It’s a clear link to another alternative work by Leeson, including a film entitled Teknolust” which explores the subject of digitally created clones. This reinforces the theory that the woman in the photograph was deliberately stripped of any distinguishing details, to enhance the idea of media blurring our individuality. It’s particularly fitting to the current issues being faced by many young women, feeling the pressure to look like the identical models seen in the media.

The only emotion portrayed in “Reach” is in the gesture of reaching forward. There’s an air of desperation and a cry for help. I get the impression that she wants to break out of the image or is blinded by want she sees through the camera; seeking some sense of reality.
Perhaps she is reaching for help from us, the viewer, who are part of the reality that is being lost.

Alternatively, the way in which she is leaning forward on the bed in a short black dress could be seen as seductive. If the subject was a kind of model then she could be consumed by a need for media attention, and seeking acceptance from the photographer and anyone else viewing the images.

Hershman’s work ranges from performances to photo-collages to videotapes to interactive installations. She divides her work into two periods of time: “B.C.” (Before Computers) and “A.D.” (After Digital); 1980 marks the year that Hershman first picked up a video camera and entered her “A.D.” period, discovering video’s alternative space.

The changes in her own views and ideas during this time of progression in technology has had a huge impact on her work. Hershman takes inspiration from others peoples need for media consumption, and their appreciation for own. 




Bibliography




‘GODDESS- the secret lives of Marilyn Monroe’-
Anthony Summers
Great Britain
1987
Sphere books ltd-
Information and quotes of Marilyn original photograph

‘Woman Artists in the 20th and 21st century’-
Edited by Utah Grosenick
Taschen
2001
Great Britain-
Information on artist

http://sweeney.ucr.edu/exhibitions/hershman/ - leesons ideas on “B.C. and A.D.”


Kirsty Forsdike
Words 1014