This artist found an inventive way to make art while in an airplane restroom. Obviously her means were limited by her situation, making the camera the most practical tool for creating these images. The huge disparity between the time periods and the means of production of the centuries old form of painting/portraiture she's emulating only adds to the project's totally delightful weirdness..I'm especially impressed with the creative and totally effective use of the flotation device. From her website:
While in the lavatory on a domestic flight in March 2010, I spontaneously put a tissue paper toilet cover seat cover over my head and took a picture in the mirror. The image evoked 15th-century Flemish portraiture. I decided to add more images made in this mode and planned to take advantage of a long-haul flight from San Francisco to Auckland, guessing that there were likely to be long periods of time when no one was using the lavatory on the 14-hour flight. I made several forays to the bathroom from my aisle seat, and by the time we landed I had a large group of new photographs entitled Lavatory Self-Portraits in the Flemish Style. I was wearing a thin black scarf that I sometimes hung up on the wall behind me to create the deep black ground that is typical of these portraits. There is no special illumination in use other than the lavatory's own lights and all the images are shot hand-held with the camera phone. At the Dunedin Public Art gallery, the photos were framed in faux-historical frames and hung on a deep red wall reminiscent of the painting galleries in museums like the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
I really enjoyed looking through these pictures.
ReplyDeleteHer work reminded me of a saying that women can live in the middle of nowhere if they only have a mirror. I like the fact that her works were created spontaneously and that she used her phone camera. Her use of simple and random items that she had at the very moment and calling it photography(an artwork) reminded me that art is in everyday of our life. Moreover, art does not have to be perfect. Because the reason why I love art and decided to become an artist at the first place, was because I enjoy the act itself more that the result. (Not saying that the result is not important,,, )
I really enjoy this utilitarian means of making images. The used to make these is both unconventional and quick, yet very endearing. It seems whether or not the artist really was making a serious or silly gesture is irrelevant; but the more important thing is one can observe how great ideas seemingly come through pure boredom or when one is in a situation that is completely un-condusive to art making (such as being 20,000 feet above the ground for over half a day).
ReplyDeleteUltimately our unconscious mind is simultaneously at work as we are conscious but also while asleep. For instance when we dream, our brain is working without our consciousness yet those thoughts feelings and emotions within dreams are an amassing of conscious thoughts feelings and emotions, abstracted by the mind, leading us to believe that our dreams are inherently "random". This might be true to a certan extent but without this conscious collecting that our brain does we cannot retain information to draw upon, such as mimicry, as exhibited within this piece. So, I think this piece, as well as all art really, is derivative of some kind of interaction that we previously had with the world, whether it be active or inactive engagement.
ReplyDeleteI really like her hilarious way of taking her pictures.
ReplyDelete