Trish Morrissey

Trish Morrissey’s concept is similar to that of Lee’s, however in Morrissey’s case she approaches families on the beach and asks to completely take on someone’s role for the photograph, usually the mother. On first glance, this as a set isn’t as convincing as Lee’s; something in the body language and facial expressions of both Morrissey and the families show a slight discomfort with the situation. This is hardly surprising, how often does a strange woman invade a family holiday and ask to replace the mother for a family photo – visions of bunny boilers spring to mind.

In order to create such a scene, Morrissey would have to be confident and somehow, convince them that she isn’t mad. She always wore an item of the mother’s clothing to represent her place in the picture; in the image below, it was the mother’s ring. This would require a very open minded family with a broad appreciation for art to take part in the project. If I were with a group of friends, we’d probably go for it for a laugh, however I’m not sure my family would be convinced to take part.

I feel that there is an element of voyeurism in this project, Morrissey spends half an hour or so setting up the shots, in the process probably getting to know a little about them. This is however, a very open voyeurism, far from sitting at the other end of the beach with a zoom lens, Morrissey gets right in on the action and this is only possible with full consent of the family.

Morrissey investigates further into family life in her project, ‘Seven Years’, in which she and her sister dress up as siblings at different ages and stages of life, maintaining their seven-year age gap. The sisters use props and clothing to represent the era they are shooting and play characters of different sexes throughout. The photos show classic images taken of siblings as they grow up and goes some way to highlight the fact that many families take the same photos. The stances shown in many of the images highlight our desire to take images in the midst of a family event, yet we ask the subject to stop and pose first, distancing them from the precise activity we wanted to photograph.

Morrissey’s ‘The Failed Realist’ shows a series of images of her face, painted by her daughter between the ages of four and five. At this age infants reach The Failed Realist stage, according to Georges-Henri Luquet, a point at which their desire to express through mark making is beyond their physical skill. Romantic artists such as Picasso attempted to retrieve this ability to paint like a child, beliving it to be a more pure form of art.

Morrissey’s daughter loved to face paint and the series, The Failed realist shows images of her interpretations of things seen in films, events and dreams.

References:

Morrissey T, (2006) Trish Morrissey [online]. At http://www.trishmorrissey.com/works_pages/work-front/workpg-06.html (accessed 31/8/15)

Morrissey T, (2006) Trish Morrissey [online]. At http://www.trishmorrissey.com/works_pages/work-tfr/statement.html (accessed 31/8/15)

Morrissey T, (2006) Trish Morrissey [online]. At http://www.trishmorrissey.com/works_pages/work-sy/statement.html (accessed 31/8/15)

Phillips S (2013), Trish Morrisey’s best photograph: infiltrating a family on a Kent beach [online]. At http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2013/jan/23/trish-morrissey-best-shot (accessed 31/8/15)

Nikki S. Lee

Nikki S. Lee’s ‘Projects’, created as one of her graduation requirements shows her dressing up as a person from different ethnic backgrounds and cultural groups in American society. A self-professed conceptualist, rather than photographer, Lee asks people from within the groups or passers by to take snap shots of her and her newly found ‘friends’. She has become an old woman, a skate boarder, a drag queen and an American tourist among many things.

Nikki’s skill appears to be in her ability to fit so comfortably into these personas; at first glance, her photographs look like ordinary snap shots, until they are seen as a group and the same person appears in them all.

A student with no spare cash, Lee didn’t use expensive equipment. This works in her favour for this particular series as the ‘snapshot’ quality gives an authenticity, which would have been lost had the images appeared more professional. Lee is a fan of the efficient project, those of great outcome with minimal effects. She feels that an image which creates layers, simple at first but which can be peeled to reveal so much more. Her motivation in creating the series was to see herself in other people’s shoes, to explore the relationships between her and others.

There is a voyeuristic streak to Lee’s ‘Projects’; she has momentarily entered the worlds of others, some that we see every day and others that are slightly more hidden, such as strippers and drag queens. Lee’s intention was to explore her place in society, although I feel it goes some way to explore the categories most people put themselves into, the instinctive need we have to fit into a group or culture.

I enjoyed looking through these images as they appealed to my love of the real life image, and then shocked my senses as I realised that none of them were what they initially appeared to be.

References:

The Creator’s Project (2015), Nikki Lee [online]. At http://thecreatorsproject.vice.com/en_uk/show/nikki-s-lee (accessed 31/8/15)

McLeod P.D. (2004), Stretching Identity to Fit: The Many Faces of Nikki S. Lee [online]. At http://cielvariablearchives.org/en/component/content/article/393-stretching-identity-to-fit-the-many-faces-of-nikki-s-lee.html(accessed 31/8/15)

Autobiographical Self-Portraiture

Having spent the weekend researching three quite different photographers, I am the most drawn to the work of Elina Brotherus. Like Briony Campbell, researched previously, Brotherus’ work feels more raw, taken in the moment and using photography to display emotions of which it may be too painful to speak.

I have never been a fan of staged photography; I want to be moved by an image, to feel like I am experiencing the artist’s story with them. An image that has been created, using models, studio lighting and backdrop for me, beautiful as it may be, lacks something. I feel that in Gillian Wearing’s planning, something is lost on me.

Contrary to this, I feel that Francesca Woodman’s images, although planned and sketched out beforehand, still ooze with character. In hindsight, I wonder if this planning was to project a very different character to the one known by family and friends; they describe her as a funny, happy young woman, even though she committed suicide at the age of twenty-two.

The sheer volume of self-portraiture of Woodman and Brotherus leads me to believe there may be an element of narcissism. Both women regularly pose nude; I’m not sure if this is due to narcissism or a feeling of wanting to bare all, emotionally in their images, to hide nothing. I feel that the latter is more the case in Brotherus’ images as she appears to me to be a woman who uses photography to express herself in ways she can’t in words.

Before reading these women’s stories, I had quite different views on their images, more inclined to think they were purely narcissistic; I feel that the text I have read accompanying the images has given me a fuller understanding of their intended meaning and has brought me closer to understanding the women as artists.

I feel that the portraits these women have produced have gone some way to address wider issues beyond the personal; Woodman has addressed mental health issues and death while Wearing has addressed family roles. Brotherus has addressed a number of issues; much of her work shows vulnerability as a human being in a vast, harsh world, she addresses relationships and control in works such as ‘Artists at work’ and her most personal work goes a long way to address issues around motherhood and the pain of not having children. I feel that many people, both male and female could connect to Brotherus’ images.

This exercise connects research on Francesca Woodman, Elina Brotherus and GillianWearing.

Gillian Wearing

‘Gillian Wearing digs up her past for tilt at Vincent Award’

‘Gillian Wearing is posing as herself from 30 years ago in a piece called Me as an Artist in 1984 which is ironic since, at the time, such a career path had not even crossed her mind.’ Brown M (2014)

Having already won the prestigious Turner Prize, Gillian Wearing was shortlisted as one of five, set to win the Dutch Vincent Award, created to celebrate mid-career artists whose work is considered influential to the development of contemporary art in Europe. She celebrated by revisiting works from her past in which she wore masks of family members in order to question her role in family history. On this occasion however, Wearing wore a mask of herself from thirty years ago, she also donned the masks of her personal heroes, Dianne Arbus and Robert Mapplethorpe. Wearing explained that she had spent so much time looking at their work, they felt like family; I suppose they have played a part in who she is today, as a photographer and maybe as a person.

The process of creating the portraits was painstaking, using the skills of a sculptor, painters and a wig maker. A face cast of Wearing was created with the masks sculpted on top to enable her to wear the mask with a snug fit; the masks were eventually glued into place for the shoot. Due to the material of the masks not absorbing light like real skin, lighting had to be modified.

Although the family members were different ages, Wearing used images of them all in their late teens to early twenties, including her parents, making them appear equal. Due to a lack of photographs of her grandparents at a younger age, she opted to create older models of them; this gave them presumed roles of matriarch and patriarch.

It is said that Wearing used this series of images to explore her role in the history of her family; I’m really not sure if she achieved this. I appreciate the work that has gone into it, I think it’s done remarkably well but apart from being slightly creeped out by a couple of them, they don’t anything for me emotionally. If these images are addressing wider issues, it’s going right over my head.

References

• Brown M. (2014) Gillian Wearing digs up her past for tilt at Vincent Award [online]. At http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2014/sep/08/gillian-wearing-shortlist-vincent-award (accessed 31/8/15)

• Paley M (2012) Gillian Wearing takeover: behind the mask – the Self Portraits [online]. At http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2012/mar/27/gillian-wearing-takeover-mask (accessed 31/8/15)