Exercise
Reflect on the pieces of work discussed in this project in your learning log and do
some further research of your own.
Here are a few questions you might ask yourself:
• How do these images make you feel?
• Do you think there’s an element of narcissism or self-indulgence in focusing on
your own identity in this way?
• What’s the significance of Brotherus’s nakedness?
• Can such images ‘work’ for an outsider without accompanying text?
• Do you think any of these artists are also addressing wider issues beyond the
purely personal?
Make some notes in your learning log.
Elena Brotherus
“I’m showing this series of photographs to give a visibility to those whose treatments lead nowhere. The hopeless story with an unhappy end is the story of the majority. My way of discussing the matter is to give out the pictures, not to give an interview. I’m not sure if I will be able to actually speak about this. I’m still too sad. This is the saddest thing that has happened to me since my mother’s death. Yet, I’m tired of lying and inventing excuses to this or that medication, not drinking, having to cancel trips etc. People these days aren’t ashamed of talking about sex, psychological problems, alcohol and drugs, but for some
reason involuntary childlessness is very much a taboo topic….
Elina Brotherus http://www.galleriesinparis.com/exhibitions/brotherus-gb-agency/ (accessed 5.10.2017)
This quote by Elena Brotherus sets the scene for the images that follow. A Finnish photographer she injects a very personal view of her experiences of childlessness and failed IVF. Brotherus is a Finnish photographed who examines the impact on her and her relationships.
Through her work the viewer gets a strong sense of a person who appears to be very sad. Many of her photographs are of her in a state of distress or one assumes depressiojn. Her shots are often of her posing naked which is significant because it leaves the viewer sensing that they can see beyond her outer self.
We begin to understand through the videos available how turning forty affected her emotionally and how her images can help address subjects that make people feel uncomfortable. In her series Annunciation (a body of work about her infertility) she attempts to impartially explore the subject but in her own words often becomes personally involved. This is unsurprising given the huge amount of energy, thought and emotion that these ideas must evoke. She often appears in her shots with the release cable in view or with her back to the camera. This it seems is her trying to demonstrate a connection (between model and artist) and at other times appearing universal (a figure in a landscape).
An interesting point that Brotherus makes is that she does not immediately edit her work but leaves it for months so that she can see it with fresh eyes. This is something I can identify with, often when I first look at images I have made I often think there is nothing worth editing but by chance I went back to a set of images over 12 months after I’d taken them and discovered there were many that I could make use of. The space between the action and the review helps us to become more objective in how we feel about the shots.
The composition of Elina Brotherus’ images and her use of natural light (often quite low light) helps give a sense of contemplation or even a meditative feel to them.
When I look at these images I feel very sad, Brotherus’ own sad eyes are penetrating in many of the shots. In using her camera when she is in a dark place is a way of helping her understand why she is feeling the same way. In the same way as someone who is depressed my write down their feelings Brotherus is doing this through imagery.
When I first looked at the images I did think there was a touch of narcissism in them and of self pity but, as I looked more closely and began to understand the artist I do not now think that is the case. Without the narrative accompanying the images I’m not sure I would have ended up in the same place in my thinking. I think I would have had some empathy but without the understanding. In her nakedness Brotherus communicates her vulnerability. I think she is communicating a subject or subjects that can be very difficult to address. A bit like domestic violence.
Francesca Woodman
“it is difficult not to read Woodman’s many self-portraits – she produced over five hundred during her short lifetime – as alluding to a troubled state of mind“
(Bright, 2010. p25)
Francesca Woodman an American photographer took her own life at a very early age (22years). Her work mainly in black and white and using slow shutter speeds and long exposure. Her subjects are either herself as a model or female models, often naked, often blurred by movement and sometimes ghostly. Her shots are often in rooms with very little in them ( she lived and worked in an old decaying warehouse) and often with a significant amount of empty space. She herself often appears only wearing a pair of shoes.
Much has been written in Feminist literature about “feminine space” ,
Kathleen Kirby writes that where we are in space determines a large portion of our status as subjects. Kirby K.M. 1996)
This perhaps gives us an insight into the world that Woodman was struggling with and with her use the decaying almost empty buildings has something to do with what and who she was. This leads us to ask ourselves if she is exploring her identity and sexuality and where she fits in wider society. However, there is some debate over the interpretation of Woodman’s work and some argue that it is surrealist in style. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/art/art-news/9279676/Blurred-genius-the-photographs-of-Francesca-Woodman.html.
I am not sure that Woodman saw herself as a feminist. When asked by a friend why she did self portraits she replied that she was always available.
I think without evidence of why she committed suicide and relying on anecdote from relatives and friends and the academic work written about Francesca, it is more difficult to pigeon hole her work into either one or the other.
Her upbringing seems to have been remarkable in that her parents were artists and encouraged Francesca and her brother by giving them sketchbooks and taking them to museums and galleries. Francesca also attended boarding school in Massachusetts followed by college in Rhode Island when she produced the majority of her work.
Is this work any more self-indulgent than that of Elina Brotherus? Whilst Brotherus is exploring a condition, a situation she finds herself in for Woodman it all about identity. However, the work they both produce demonstrate disturbed women who if they were writing about their experiences and feelings we would not be asking these questions. I therefore, do not think that Woodman’s work is narcissitic.
By representing herself naked, a blurred figure and in decaying minimalist settings she is perhaps laying herself bare in a similar way to Brotherus or she may be seeking to achieve and artistic image. This kind of imagery, partly because not many women make images of naked women (that lies in the gift of men when it is usually seen as art) can make us feel uncomfortable. It is well known that women talk about and explore their feelings more than men and I think that these two artists are doing just that through their art.
“It is difficult not to read Woodman’s many self-portraits – she produced
over five hundred during her short lifetime – as alluding to a troubled
state of mind. She committed suicide at the age of twenty-two.”
(Bright, 2010, p.25)
We are asked in the course work if there is any evidence for Bright’s statement above. I think there is evidence that the images are hard to read and that we may make assumptions about them because of the nature of her untimely death.
Conclusion
I find all of these images evoke an emotional reaction from me and I veer between thinking them narcissistic and that they are raising an awareness of issues pertaining to each of the artists. I have wondered if I would have the same reaction if these women wrote about their issues and there was only text associated with the individual stories. My answer to that would be probably not. I would see them more as a way of the writer using this media as perhaps, a cathartic exercise where the act of writing it down also informs others of the situation and issues relating to the writer.
So in answer to the questions posed to us in the course notes about do they work without the text, I would say probably not at first. It would leave me wondering what the artist was trying to say. However, after studying them for some time I think I may get the message that they are trying to get over.
Kirby K.M, 1996, Indifferent Boundaries:Spatial Concepts of Human Subjectivity, The Guildford Press, New York https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=6GtGDp3b3AkC&pg=PA11&dq=Kathleen+Kirby+Defining+the+Space+of+the+Subject:+Investigating+the+Boundaries+of+Feminism&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjYkfHOqdnWAhVHAsAKHbzuCtEQ6AEIKDAA#v=onepage&q=Kathleen%20Kirby%20Defining%20the%20Space%20of%20the%20Subject%3A%20Investigating%20the%20Boundaries%20of%20Feminism&f=false (Accessed 5.10.17)
Salter K (2012) Blurred genius: the photographs of Francesca Woodman, The Telegraph, London http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/art/art-news/9279676/Blurred-genius-the-photographs-of-Francesca-Woodman.html (Accessed 5.10.17)
References
Elina Brotherus http://www.galleriesinparis.com/exhibitions/brotherus-gb-agency/ (accessed 5.10.2017)
Lynda Wearn OCA Learning Log 