Double Bridges by Erica Stephens
Double Dollar Shower Stall by Erica Stephens
Both are part of a series of work I’m doing in which imagery is awkwardly doubled or mirrored.
Filed under: Photography
July 14, 2009 • 9:24 pm 0
Bodies in Conflict: The Problematic Nature of Documentation in the Works of Vanessa Beecroft
VB35.377.MS From VB35, April 23, 1998, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY
Descriptions of Vanessa Beecroft’s installations of scantily clad, airbrushed women often claim that at its most basic level the work aims to address and challenge traditions of portraiture through a shift in media – from the female figure represented in paint on a two-dimensional surface to the female figure as represented by the orchestration of live models. Often in contention, many question the role and/or manipulation of sexuality in the artist’s interaction with the women, as well as in the women’s interaction with the receiving audience.
According to Dave Hickey (who gives an account as one such audience member), when one receives the work live, interacting with these bodies in relation to one’s own body in both space and time, the question of sexuality need not be problematic to the work. In his essay, “Vanessa Beecroft’s Painted Ladies,” (a title that itself seems to contradict the notion that sexuality is inconsequential), Hickey describes in particular the uncanny experience of the audience member who enters the exhibition space with certain expectations, only to find themselves somewhat disabled when the work does not perform in ways they had expected:
“Beecroft’s tableaux, as described and as documented, seem undeniable products of the photographic imagination, confections whipped up out of the iconography of fashion and desire. In person and in situ, however, they are changed utterly. They are at once less erotic and more flagrant, in the manner of Italian painting, which, rather than teasing us with fantasies of the flesh, teases our own shame about the fact of our bodies… Our anxiety, then, does not arise from the fact that naked women are near to us, but from the unabridged, yet ill-defined distance between ourselves and them. It is not the anxiety of desire, but the anxiety of displacement.” (VB 08-36 7)
Unfortunately, due to the nature of the installations (most of with last from three to six hours), the experience above is often restricted in its availability, granted to those on what is often a short list of invitees, or, in the case of her Biennale work, to those able to travel in the name of art appreciation (and even then, the connoisseur might find his prey a difficult hunt). What Hickey refers to above, then, her tableaux, “as described and documented,” is the way in which most experience the work and currently is the sole manner in which the work is collected. And while the installations themselves may or may not invert the power of the gaze so that the sexual objectification of these women is stripped away, the documentation of the work most certainly does not.
The act of documentation falls on Beecroft herself, at times in collaboration with assistants. The majority of this documentation involves still photography, though video has been employed in some recent work. Often the documentation occurs during what amounts to a dress rehearsal, a performance that occurs before the ‘official’ installation; there is no outside audience present during this installation, leaving Beecroft free to document the women without interruption and without being actively cast in the ‘official’ work. As such, the photographic documentation we see resulting from these dress rehearsals is in fact not documentation of the installation to which they are attributed, as the audience, critical to the function of the work, is absent. Instead, Beecroft is the audience, and her gaze functions entirely differently from that of an audience plagued by, “the anxiety of displacement.” Beecroft’s documentation does not dismantle traditional notions of the gaze and the female body, particularly in regards to sexual objectification, but instead quite exuberantly reinforces it. Beecroft has, through her documentation, created a second body of work that acts to deflate its foil, that elusive work which Hickey describes above.
When asked of her relationship with the women she casts in her installations, Beecroft responds:
“When I direct the girls and give them the rules, it is as if I was the man. I tell them to shut up, not to talk to me, to get naked, to get out there, to stand and wait, taking for granted that they understand what it is about.” (Vanessa Beecroft: Photographs, Films, Drawings 146)
In preparation for her work, Beecroft sets up a power relationship in which she casts the “girls” (as she calls them) as Other – mimicking the behavior Simone de Beauvior wrote of in The Second Sex – “She [woman] is defined and differentiated with reference to man, not he with reference to her; she is the incidental, the inessential as opposed to the essential. He is the Subject, he is the Absolute – she is the Other.” And indeed if we look to early works of Beecroft’s we find the inclusion of diaries and wigs that make distinct reference to her of personal issues of identity.
The documentation we see of Beecroft’s installation is entirely involved with spectacle, and reproduces classic cinematic notions of the male gaze. The photographs often fragment the female figure, one such example cropping the image such that we see only the legs, buttocks and lower back of a woman in the background, as the woman placed in the foreground is positioned such that she acts as blurred backdrop for her own legs and shoes, propagation of sexuality and fashion as she looks away from the eye of the camera. (VB36.330.AL From VB36, May 16, 1998, Galerie fur Zeitgenossische Kunst Leipzig, Germany)
Equally problematic in the image described, as well as many others, is the perspective of the gaze we are presented with. We are rarely given view from the vantage point of an audience member, but instead look through the eyes of one who inhabits a more powerful position, moving freely between the women, moving above and below and between them, viewing the bodies in space in ways denied both the woman (who are forbidden to make eye-contact with the audience, though in documentation we often see them making eye-contact with their documenter, a gesture that usurps any power these women are seemingly given by consciously enacting a shared awareness of the functionality of the gaze) and the audience itself who, if we are to trust Hickey’s description of the phenomenological nature of her work, has their position as authoritative viewer stolen from them. Instead, our documenter acts as omnipotent commander, capturing intimate moments that occur during the performance, sexualizing and objectifying these women as she moves between them, “documenting” them.
In the end what we see is not documentation of the “official” installations (in the sense that it does not adequately reproduce them), but is instead photographic production on behalf of Beecroft, who has admittedly placed herself in the role of the authoritative male. What are we to make, then, of Beecroft’s second body of work, the so-called documentation of the first, particularly when these images seem to function, bereft of their (claimed) Renaissance-esque context, as little more than pure fashion production?
Works Cited
Beecroft, Vanessa. Vanessa Beecroft: Photographs, Films, Drawings. Ed. Thomas Kellein. Germany: Hatje Cantze Publishers, 2004.
Beecroft, Vanessa. VB 08-36. Germany: Cantz Editions, 2000.
de Beauvior, Simone. The Second Sex. Trans. H.M. Parshley. New York: Knopf, 1952.
Filed under: Event, Photography, Thoughts , art, Dave Hickey, documentation, fashion, sexuality, the male gaze, Vanessa Beecroft
July 9, 2009 • 11:15 pm 1
I am a Desiring Machine
I adore things that double, that behave as themselves as they identify themselves or some such. So naturally I love Lacan. Such a trickster! I came across a quote of his today that I simply adore coming from the man who waxed poetic (and esoteric!) on lack, loss and desire for that which we don’t know that we don’t know:
“What does it matter how many lovers you have if none of them gives you the universe?”
Lacan pontificating
It must be the universe I am lacking.
Filed under: Thoughts , desire, Lacan, lack, love, lovers, lust, sex, universe
July 2, 2009 • 12:33 am 1
Pugs Were Made to be Loved
I’ve always been a big dog person. My siblings and I grew up with a black lab we named “Sister.” (It’s ok, everyone go ahead and awwwww in unison.) But when I hit 29 a couple years ago and baby fever hit an epic level I knew something had to give. I needed to add a dog to my two-cat home, lest I start sleepwalking in the middle of the night and flushing my birth control down the toilet. And because I am a condo dweller I was going to have to find a small dog to hug and kiss and love and spoil.
Oxford sleeping in my lap as I write this blog post.
I did my research about personalities and such and it was obvious pretty earlier on that a pug was going to be the small dog fit for me.
Oxford is now a year and a half old and I couldn’t be more in love with him. He is a completely ridiculous creature. He sleeps on my face and he cries when he’s overwhelmed (let me tell you, the first time I made a dog cry I felt like the biggest ass on earth). He plays with the cats and doesn’t care to notice that they aren’t playing back. He hides everything ever in my bed – it’s his sacred place. He still smells like puppy. When the lawn servicemen come he barks at them in a cadence that sounds like Wonder Dog – Bow wow wow WOW wow WOW!
He also eats toilet paper, napkins, and anything like it. I don’t know how he gets into things. He eats tampons. I’ve tried to explain to him that I’m not dying and that this is the most disgusting thing I’ve ever seen, but he just keeps on keepin’ on.
He is stubborn as all heck. He knows what no means, what sit means, go, outside, chewy, mommy, bed…. but he only acknowledges knowing them when it is convenient for him. Someone once told me having a pug is like having a 2 year old and it is so true. I can’t tell you how often the words, “Why did you do THAT?” come out of my mouth. And of course he looks at me with complete innocence even though I know he knows what he’s done. And that’s a pug for you.
And worse, once you become a pug owner there is certain behavior you will be unable to avoid. You will go nuts for every other pug you see. You will talk to any pug owner like you’ve known them for years. You will introduce yourselves by the names of your dogs rather than your own names. And worst of all, you will purchase obnoxious pug crap that you do not need. Because anything that reminds you of your pug and how much you love him and he loves you calls out to you.
Angel/Devil Pug Salt and Pepper Shaker
You are part of an elite club that talks to your dog in different pitches so you can laugh while he nods his head back and forth. You vacuum every day and are still willing to leave the house covered in dog hair without feeling completely defeated, because eventually it’s just a badge of pug ownership. You don’t know when to break it to the new person you’re dating that the dog does in fact always get to sleep in the bed. You show off pictures of your pug like someone showing off baby pictures. In fact, you show them to the guy showing his baby pictures because you are certain your pug is way cuter than his baby anyways, and you’re just as proud of your little monster as he is of his. You have no idea why he is offended by this.
And someday you decide to have a kid so your pug has a friend to play with.
Filed under: Thoughts, Uncategorized
June 29, 2009 • 11:02 am 0
My Dog is a Better Artist Than Me
June 28, 2009 • 11:36 pm 3
Word Camp Dallas 2009
“Just throw her in. She’ll figure it out or she won’t.” — My Uncle Jon teaching me to swim.
Dave Moyer Attack! by Aaron
It’s important to know that I write this review, and attended this conference, from the point of view of a true beginner. I’m building my own website (yep, this one!) for myself out of absolute necessity – my ex made my last one, it is years out of date, an artist worth her salt must have a site (especially if her business cards advertise one), and I never liked the original site anyways. So I’ve decided to go all Big Business meets 9 to 5 and do it for myself.* I’m an arts professor at UTD so I heard talk about this hoe down floating around campus for a few weeks and finally decided to just throw myself in and see if I floated to the top.
*(Lily Tomlin MADE both of those films. What a rad, rad lady.)
First, my only real complaint. The schedule ran over by hours on both days of the event. Granted I didn’t get any sleep Friday night because of some lovely Word Camp attendees I met that night, so Saturday was going to be miserable for me no matter what. Nevertheless even the most committed Campers were checking their watches at the end of each day. I can’t fault the Powers That Be too much for this, though, because it wasn’t due to poor planning on their part. Rather, the speakers they invited came packed with such an arsenal of info that every one of them went over their allotted time. So as far as a negative goes, that’s a pretty darn good one.
I think one of the strongest aspects the planners got right was fostering a sense of community amongst the attendees. This was my first time meeting Jon Pozadzides (and everyone else for that matter), but it seemed like most people there knew him already. He, Tony Cecala, and Erica O’Grady all came off as the type of people that have never met a stranger. And though in my real world I’m the wacky, crazy one, I was completely out of my element and played the role of shy and intimidated all weekend. So it was great that there were a few people who made it their sole mission to talk to and welcome every person that entered their sight line.
There was a meet and greet for the event at a bowling alley the night before the conference began, which was a fabulous idea. Few things break the ice between strangers more quickly than stinky bowling shoes and beer. It was at this particular event that I met the group from Austin that graciously allowed me to tag along with them all weekend. I showed up at the bowling alley not knowing anyone so I approached the first group that seemed the least afraid of new people. (Plus they were all male and handsome, so that was a pretty big plus.) And clearly my socializing karma was in full effect because I picked up a 5-7 split (aka a “Woolworth”) at only one beer in.
Bowling and Beer
Still Bowling Still Beering
The tone of the bowling meet and greet carried the attendees through the weekend. There were smiles all around, punctuated by Jon Pozadzides getting his Cher on by changing outfits every hour. As to the presentations and the conference, I felt really empowered throughout. I found that not everything was completely over my head, which shows the mark of a good speaker more than anything else. I did hear complaints from a few people that the presentations weren’t involved or tech oriented enough, but they’re super nerds and I’m a newbie. From my standpoint things were just challenging enough (except for that one guy who I really think was speaking in maths because I didn’t understand any of it).
My three favorite presenters, in no particular order:
Getting Beyond Google AdSense by Mark Hopkins
Though I don’t intend to put ads on my site I enjoyed this one a lot. I spent a few years entrenched in the webcomics world, where every other conversation is about successful business models to make money off of free content, so this presentation was a little like going to a high school football game when your senior-year freshmen have become seniors. Hopkins focused on the idea of being a “content producer,” and ads being secondary to that. As the head of my grad program used to tell us, “It doesn’t matter how great an artist you are if you never get around to making anything.” Ads might work IF your content performs. Plus Hopkins was the first to break down some of the acronyms that were floating around, so he has a special place in my heart for that.
Extreme Social Media Promotion Hacks by Giovanni Galluci
This guy should have another guy walk behind him at all times with a boombox on his shoulder blasting Rage Against the Machine’s Take the Power Back over and over. The new Farnsworth Bentley. He’s New School Old School. Plus he was the first to spell out what SEO means – Search Engine Optimization. Let me tell ya, these things make so much more sense when you know what they stand for. I thought his approach to getting people to your site and making a reputation for yourself was refreshingly simple. Most important to me was his focus on putting yourself in the shoes of both your audience and your sponsors. As far as your audience goes, what vocabulary are they using to find you? What are they looking for? And as to sponsors, what do you have to offer them? There’s a whole lot more out there to focus on than just page views. What an idea!
Multimedia Publishing by Dave Moyer
Dave Moyer by Jennifer Conley
When I was at the bowling meetup on Friday night an adorable youngster came up to me and started talking about and inviting me to a presentation on Sunday. It went a bit like this:
Him: “I hear there’s this guy talking, D-something, like Don or Dave or-”
Me: “Dean Terry? Or Dave Parry? They teach here but I don’t think they’re around this weekend.”
Him: “No, it’s like D-….. Dave SOMETHING.”
At this point he’s pointing to his name tag and I’m still not putting one and one together to figure out that he’s talking about himself. I can be so dense sometimes. Of course I also thought he was 12 and was someone’s son tagging along for the free bowling, so there you go.
So, yes. Turns out he was the presenter of whom he was speaking, and he was awesome. He was one of the most engaging speakers of the weekend, and good gravy does he know his stuff. But rather than talk about his presentation (because I’m convinced in the next four years everyone on earth will know who he is), I’d like to talk about WHY he makes the list of one of my favorites. Dave Moyer has the most expressive face I’ve ever seen. My favorite moment of the entire conference, in fact, was sitting in the outcast room where the video from the main conference was streaming live. On the screen in front of us we saw Dave sitting in front of a screen on the stage that was running a stream of photos from throughout the event. A photo of Dave making an absurd face came up on the screen, and he was so put off by it that he reacted by making the exact same face. It was so fabulously meta. Plus he was sitting next to Matt Mullenweg during the panel discussion and they were dressed in the same little uniform. It was pretty adorable. I kept waiting for them to cross their legs or their arms in the same way but they never truly echoed each other. But if I can ever catch Matt Mullenweg making a Dave Moyer face I’m sure my life will be complete.
Twinsies!
Overall Word Camp gets a big happy hug review from me. While it does have some scheduling kinks to work out, I think this event in Dallas is going to grow and benefit from having such a committed behind the scenes group. I’m straight-up in for Word Camp Dallas 2010.
For a much more intelligent, useful write up of the event, head over to Charles McKeever’s The Open Source Marketer. And of course you can catch up on what you may have missed at http://dallas.wordcamp.org/
Friday Night Hookah - Look at me mainlining that coffee at 1am. Saturday's attention span never had a chance. William appears to already be asleep. Also, Manoj needs to set the clock on his camera.
Filed under: Event , #wcdfw09, beer, bowling, Lily Tomlin, Matt Mullenweg, Word Camp
June 14, 2009 • 7:30 pm 0
Book cover design
Erica Stephens
Cover concept and photography for How To Make Webcomics
Filed under: Photography
• 12:25 am 0
Nicole Atkins
Nicole Atkins
I can’t give Nicole Atkins and her band enough praise. Neptune City is a fantastic album. She gets compared to Aimee Mann (which is a complement) but this music is bigger – rich and lush textured sounds that call up a mix of big band and classic blues. Couple that with her booming, sultry voice and I’m sold. I can’t wait for the next album. Or for them to come play Dallas!
www.nicoleatkins.com
Filed under: Thoughts
