Female Photographers

CINDY SHERMAN

Cindy Sherman, Untitled, 1982 (c type photo)

'By turning the camera on herself, Cindy Sherman has built a name as one of the most respected photographers of the late twentieth century. Although, the majority of her photographs are pictures of her, however, these photographs are most definitely not self-portraits. Rather, Sherman uses herself as a vehicle for commentary on a variety of issues of the modern world: the role of the woman, the role of the artist and many more. It is through these ambiguous and eclectic photographs that Sherman has developed a distinct signature style. Through a number of different series of works, Sherman has raised challenging and important questions about the role and representation of women in society, the media and the nature of the creation of art.'

(http://www.cindysherman.com/biography.shtml)

HANNAH WILKE

Hannah Wilke Super-t-Art 1974

Photographic Work

'Hannah Wilke is known for her photographic work of performances in which she used her own body, and she established herself as both the artist and the subject of her work. Wilke created "Hannah Wilke Super-t-Art" using 20 images from her 1974 live perfomance at the Kitchen, New York, and she created the 1976 photographic triptych "Gestures," using stills from her 1974 videotaped performance. Wilke coined the term "Performalist Self-Portrait" to describe  photographic work she created and directed others to photograph, including the 1975 "S.O.S. Starification Object Series," "I Object, Memoirs of a Sugar Giver,"1977, "So Help Me Hannah," 1978, and "Intra Venus," 1993.'

(http://www.hannahwilke.com/id5.html)

Burnt biscuits, the story of my life...

So for the last session of my text and image elective I decided to bake some biscuits in the shape of speech bubbles... after deciding they weren't quite cooked enough I put them in the oven for a further three minutes at a higher temperature and I proceeded to burn all but 5 of them! :(

(the photo shows a selection of the burnt ones, the bottom of the biscuits were pretty much black!)

I think there's something quite funny about eating a speech bubble, it sort of implies a stifling, eating one's own words or perhaps chewing over something someone has said...?

My tutor told me about an installation by Philippe Parreno, where he created 'real' speech bubble balloons. The absence of any speech upon them, as with my biscuits, I think makes them an open invitation to the viewer mentally projecting their own words onto the bubble. It would have been interesting if people could have had more interaction with the bubbles- as balloons I would like to have attached string to each so that the viewer could take possession of a bubble in the way a person could eat my bubble biscuits...

http://www.airdeparis.com/pbubble.htm

1997, ballons en mylar, helium

I also 'collaborated' with a fellow text and image student's (Brigid Deacon) biscuits for my own entertainment...

NOTE TO SELF- MUST REFERENCE THINGS BETTER!

Sound workshop

We had a very interesting talk and workshop today led by Maryclare Foa (here's a link to her website)

She talked to us about using sound as a drawing.

Rupert Sheldrake talked about perceiving the world and as you perceive the world it perceives you.

The self has one fixed p.o.v. yet is seen from a multitude of directions...

If I have a memory, an imprint of a place then are the places imprinted with me?

Hamish Fulton and Richard long made a walking drawing, I made a video of me walking, but holding the camera's lanyard so that it was left free to dangle and record a multitude of angles as I moved. I then cropped the video to show only when the camera was aimed at me as I walked. This left a jerky collection of shots showing mainly my legs and bag as I made my journey.

I think there is potential for more work of a similar nature- I feel that the dangling camera acts as a drawing tool that I have relinquished control of... I accidentally left my camera filming last week, and ended up with a rather unfortunate video that repeatedly flashed shots of crotch as the camera dangled from my wrist. Although not ideal subject matter, these weird angle glimpses of my body proved quite intriguing.

Kings Cross mural

We have been asked by Jim Geddes' landlord to create a mural on a shop front in Kings Cross.

The idea we settled on today was to use photographs found in the basement of Jim Geddes studio (of the White Cubicle) as inspiration for our painting.

Hannah Biscombe

http://www.artbelow.org.uk/artists/hannahbiscombe

photograms - a primitive photographic technique that records the space around objects on paper