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

http://sweeney.ucr.edu/exhibitions/hershman/- Some information

http://www.lynnhershman.com/- Photograph

www.flashartonline.com/interno.php?pagina=art...- Marilyn painting

‘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 20^th and 21^st 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

Conceptualizing My Own Artwork

Jenny Saville had a huge influence on the series of work that I produced in my last alternative art workshop.

I found myself looking at the work of female artists such as Cindy Sherman and Sarah Lucas because of the raw approach they take to representing the roles of women and their sexuality. Her depiction of a women’s body deconstructs the ideology built up over the years of how a woman should look. They’re nude close up’s, so there is no doubt as to the bare reality of a women’s physique.

I find Jenny Savilles work rather bewildering, not because her characters are strikingly ugly, but because this painting in particular has a level of beauty to it. The woman’s positioning and expression is subtly provocative with her bare shoulder raised in an innocent child like way. The moisture of her pouting lips is accentuated by the lighting and her eyes seem to sparkle despite the darkness of them, so they look sad, while she looks vulnerable. The reflections on the surface that she rests on adds depth to the image.

The idea of finding fairness in pain, vulnerability and what may be considered physical unsightliness is one that I find particularly interesting. It reinforces the idea that beauty can be found almost anywhere. It was an idea that I kept with my while taking the photographs. I have always disliked photographs of myself, but was encouraged to do something that took me out of my comfort zone.

I’d never produced work of, or about myself before and found the alternative art workshop to be a good opportunity. Photography was a medium that I’d also taken a real interest in, particularly after studying Cindy Sherman.  Though it was more as a means of capturing the artwork, then as a medium in itself.

A running theme throughout this series of work is the pain expressed by the characters in her painting, whether it’s in their expression, or on the skins surface. Either their bodies are painfully distorted by their own obesity, or the skin looks swollen, sore and reddened.

To create this effect, I began by layering up huge amounts of old foundation on my face, and using the varying tones to create shadows, particularly around the eyes. The painterly look of the thick brushstrokes also mirrored the blotchiness of Jenny Savilles. I was surprised by the amount of dark eye shadow and lipstick it took to enhance the bruised areas around my eyes and mouth, but found that the basic editing made it work. When I darkened the image, everything seemed to fit together somehow, and I was quite pleased with the final result.

Like Saville, I wanted to be looking at the camera in order to address the reader. I feel that much of the work I had studied seemed to demand the viewer’s attention, either by showing a character that looked at the them, or simply with its shocking content. I opted for a balance of the two. 

Kirsty Forsdike

Malcolm Mosley

Word count- 504

Visual Analysis: Hans Bellmer and Cindy Sherman

La Poupe by Hans Bellmer is a perplexing photograph that leaves the viewer with many unanswered questions. Its sharpness and inclarity makes the figure in the background menacing. He is prominent and well dressed in a stark black suit, which is a sharp contrast to the naked white female in the foreground. His face is obscured by the tree, so that his expression is unreadable, though you get the impression that he is stalking her, making the image quite uneasy.

I also feel that these sexual connotations could be associated with prostitution, due to the man being in a suit. She could be undressing as a kind of show.   

More discomforting is the fact that the figure he watches is a distorted doll like creature with two sets of legs joining at the waist. The over all effect is that her bottom half has been reflected upwards so there’s a kind of symmetry. It means that again, the doll has no face, and is oblivious to the mans presence and unaware that she is being watched.

As you begin to look at the finer details, you notice the frilly white socks and patent black shoes on both her sets of feet. It probably means that she is very young, and it is these added details that make the overall piece rather disconcerting.

Outside, in an expansive area while her clothes lay at her feet, it would seem that she has recently stripped, believing that she is alone. This makes her seem particularly exposed and vulnerable while her naivety reinforces the idea that she is young, perhaps only a child. The freedom that she’s created in the act of stripping is tainted by the strangers company.

Cindy Sherman’s #302 of her untitled film stills series has many striking similarities to the previous photograph. Again, photography has been used as a means of capturing a kind of installation.

The most striking element of this piece is the composition. The focal point is again the doll in the center as it fills the photograph. Due to her positioning and even stance her body has it’s own line of symmetry, which is emphasized by her looking directly at the viewer. This could be considered either seductive or challenging, or both. I think that the excessive makeup, nudity and spread legs are reminiscent of the images seen in pornography and prostitution.

The intimate feeling created by folds of draped fabric in the background could be seen to clarify this theory.

I find it most interesting that while Hans Bellmer has made a point of having no faces in his photo, Cindy has opted for having two. The one that looks directly at the viewer looks stern, straight and in control. The other, situated in the hole in her chest is upside down, with areas blocked away and eyes closed.

I think this could be a symbol for how the character portrayed by the doll would feel inside, as apposed to the visage on the exterior. They may act strong, but are vulnerable in reality.