Tuesday, 23 June 2009
Friday, 19 June 2009
Barbara Probst
Click here to see more + read interview : http://celinesianidjiakoua.blogspot.com/2009/06/barbara-probst-work-and-interview.html
Mehraneh Atashi - "Bodiless, I"
Mehraneh Atashi's amazing "self-portraits"... I just love them ... ever so inspiring ...
Mehraneh Atashi's Statement :
"The breath of women is religiously prohobited in the Zourkhaneh.Zourkhaneh, a traditional centre of male sport where religion ,tradition,virility and symbol of the persian hero are all mixed.The first day I entered the zourkhaneh with mirrors reflecting the sence all over,I suddenly found myself standing in front of some big and strong men .It was so hard to gain the trust of these extremly religious moslems and their agreement to pose half naked in front of me and the mirror, but magic of photography helped me ,I made sure to be peresent in each photos as a subject among the heroes. "
http://www.mehranehatashi.com/tabid/57/Default.aspx
Mehraneh Atashi's Statement :
"The breath of women is religiously prohobited in the Zourkhaneh.Zourkhaneh, a traditional centre of male sport where religion ,tradition,virility and symbol of the persian hero are all mixed.The first day I entered the zourkhaneh with mirrors reflecting the sence all over,I suddenly found myself standing in front of some big and strong men .It was so hard to gain the trust of these extremly religious moslems and their agreement to pose half naked in front of me and the mirror, but magic of photography helped me ,I made sure to be peresent in each photos as a subject among the heroes. "
http://www.mehranehatashi.com/tabid/57/Default.aspx
Monday, 25 May 2009
Tracey Emin's erotic/non erotic drawings
Tracy Emin talking about a series of drawings she made:
"I enjoyed making this series because I somehow felt removed from it. And even though it is an erotic subject, I even felt distant from the sexuality of the pictures. It was almost like I was trying to get to the bottom of something, understand something - what it means to be a woman, a single entity and feminine. There is no shock or offence intended. They were made for me, trying to deal with something that is going on in my mind. And that's the beautiful thing about drawing: it's intimate, like handwriting, and the dialogue is between the paper and me."
The ambiguity here is all in the fact that she actually "exhibits" those drawings. The subject being erotic, even though her intentions were not, by being seen by others, they become "officially" erotic.
I am very much interested in this moment when the author/artist still has the control over showing or not showing, letting the work be seen or not and in that way offering something erotic or not.
Whatever TE says her intentions were, she is showing her drawings.
Drawings :
Thursday, 30 April 2009
David Hoyle - performer - "Magazine" front covers
"Comedian David Hoyle is no drag - With scary make-up, savage wit and no showtunes,the comedian David Hoyle takes his audiences right to the edge."
CLICK HERE for interview (The Times, April 21, 2009)
Tuesday, 21 April 2009
"How I became perfect" - retouch campaign
"The media world is becoming increasingly fixated on appearances. And the number of tricks used to achieve the increasingly exaggerated ideals is growing. Many models have plastic surgery and even more are retouched so they appear to have bigger breasts, smaller stomachs or fuller lips.We wanted to show how easy it is to change someone’s appearance in this campaign."TRY HERE :http://demo.fb.se/e/girlpower/retouch/
Wednesday, 15 April 2009
"Filles d'Amsterdam" - photographic series - Jean-Luc Moulène
Jean-Luc Moulene: travail de sape.(Critical essay)
Publication: Parachute: Contemporary Art Magazine
Publication Date: 01-APR-06Author: Delbard, Nathalie
Publication: Parachute: Contemporary Art Magazine
Publication Date: 01-APR-06Author: Delbard, Nathalie
JEAN-LUC MOULÈNE WORKING TO UNDERMINE
" Naturally, Moulène has, once again, taken on an out-of-the-ordinary sort of work, one that gives rise to lively debate; moreover, although we are dealing here with people (Dutch prostitutes) (....)the body is now a body-merchandise, a kind of ultimate consumer object.
(...) in the face of these nude women with their legs spread, with their bodies marked by scars or accessories, and especially with their faces looking straight out at us in alignment with their hairless genitalia, there is no place for the beholder's gaze to seek refuge, no diagonal or intermediary space in which to withdraw. Our gaze constantly wavers between the head and the genitals; it cannot settle on one at the other's expense; it is divided without ever coming to rest. (...)Moulène refuses to separate the head and the sex. This is the major accomplishment of "Filles d'Amsterdam." One might nevertheless object, and rightly so, that this kind of representation is already largely present in our culture's field of images, especially in the pornography industry. And while "Filles d'Amsterdam" is shown in the museum space in such a way as to produce the opposite effect of a private and solitary viewing, (11) because the museum generates an important form of distanciation and forces viewers to confront their responsibility as viewing subjects, we know also that the slightest reproduction in the media (which the artist has, for the moment, authorized infrequently and under strict conditions) tends quickly to "pornify" the images. More certainly, what clearly distinguishes Moulène's photographs has to do with the very nature of the artistic process and, indirectly, with the unusual mode in which these women appear, for these are portraits, or what Moulène defines as depictions "of someone in his or her social relations by means of social signs and their social status." (12) In other words, in the case of the commercialization of bodies, the face--if it appears--must make itself forgotten as a unique object in order to facilitate the selling of the product (by using clearly stereotyped expressions). What is being asked of these "workers," however, is that they address the camera in the light of a social reality that is fully identified as such; they are far from simply putting their heads in the service of their bodies in order to maintain the illusion of the role that is usually assigned to them. It is thus from this site that the "girls of Amsterdam" gaze at us, and this is why their faces impose a persistent presence that is at least equal to the presence of their genitalia--a presence which, in the end, interferes with viewing them as prostitutes."
(11.) Note in this regard the effectiveness of the singular panoptical system Moulène created for his exhibition at the Jeu de Paume, where the thirteen photographs in the series, displayed in the central gallery upstairs, encircled viewers and constantly reminded them of their own gaze through their reflection in the images and the presence of other visitors.
(12.) Moulène, interview with Delbard, op. cit.
" Naturally, Moulène has, once again, taken on an out-of-the-ordinary sort of work, one that gives rise to lively debate; moreover, although we are dealing here with people (Dutch prostitutes) (....)the body is now a body-merchandise, a kind of ultimate consumer object.
(...) in the face of these nude women with their legs spread, with their bodies marked by scars or accessories, and especially with their faces looking straight out at us in alignment with their hairless genitalia, there is no place for the beholder's gaze to seek refuge, no diagonal or intermediary space in which to withdraw. Our gaze constantly wavers between the head and the genitals; it cannot settle on one at the other's expense; it is divided without ever coming to rest. (...)Moulène refuses to separate the head and the sex. This is the major accomplishment of "Filles d'Amsterdam." One might nevertheless object, and rightly so, that this kind of representation is already largely present in our culture's field of images, especially in the pornography industry. And while "Filles d'Amsterdam" is shown in the museum space in such a way as to produce the opposite effect of a private and solitary viewing, (11) because the museum generates an important form of distanciation and forces viewers to confront their responsibility as viewing subjects, we know also that the slightest reproduction in the media (which the artist has, for the moment, authorized infrequently and under strict conditions) tends quickly to "pornify" the images. More certainly, what clearly distinguishes Moulène's photographs has to do with the very nature of the artistic process and, indirectly, with the unusual mode in which these women appear, for these are portraits, or what Moulène defines as depictions "of someone in his or her social relations by means of social signs and their social status." (12) In other words, in the case of the commercialization of bodies, the face--if it appears--must make itself forgotten as a unique object in order to facilitate the selling of the product (by using clearly stereotyped expressions). What is being asked of these "workers," however, is that they address the camera in the light of a social reality that is fully identified as such; they are far from simply putting their heads in the service of their bodies in order to maintain the illusion of the role that is usually assigned to them. It is thus from this site that the "girls of Amsterdam" gaze at us, and this is why their faces impose a persistent presence that is at least equal to the presence of their genitalia--a presence which, in the end, interferes with viewing them as prostitutes."
(11.) Note in this regard the effectiveness of the singular panoptical system Moulène created for his exhibition at the Jeu de Paume, where the thirteen photographs in the series, displayed in the central gallery upstairs, encircled viewers and constantly reminded them of their own gaze through their reflection in the images and the presence of other visitors.
(12.) Moulène, interview with Delbard, op. cit.
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