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Exposure: Self-Portraiture, Performativity, Self-Inquiry by
Kim Connerton
© Kim Connerton 2015
i
Statement
This two-part thesis consists of a dissertation and studio component and was
undertaken for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at Sydney College of the Arts,
University of Sydney.
ii
Table of Contents
Acknowledgements P.iii
List of Illustrations P.iv
Abstract P.x
Introduction P.1
Chapter 1: Contemporary Self-Portraiture –
Multiplied and Ambiguous Selves P.18
Part 1: Multiplied identities and self-examination P.18
Part 2: Claude Cahunʼs ambiguous self/images P.60
Chapter 2: Mimicry – Between Us P.85
Part 1: Mimesis in Contemporary Culture – A Line
of Flight P.89
Part 2: Homage, a Style of Mimicry P.99
Chapter 3: Narcissism P.111
Part 1: Self-Recognition P.115
Part 2: Metamorphosis P.124
Conclusion P.134
Bibliography P.144
Artistsʼ Websites P.152
List of Images Presented for Examination P.153
iii
Acknowledgements
I wish to acknowledge my supervisor, Dr. Ann Elias, for her guidance,
knowledge and insight into this project. Additionally I wish to thank Vanessa
Berry, for her editorial assistance, friendship and support.
iv
List of Illustrations Introduction Figure 1. Kim Connerton, Transcendental Andy, 2009. Video, transparent photographs, acrylic mirrors, perspex.
Dimensions vary. Collection of the artist. P. 5
Figure 2. Kim Connerton, Mirror Self-Portrait1, 2009. Dura-clear photograph, acrylic mirror, perspex, 80 cm diameter.
Collection of the artist. P. 7 Chapter 1 Figure 1.1. Tomoko Sawada, ID400, #201-300, 1998-2001. Photobooth photographs, 11.1 x 8.9 cm. Collection of MEM, Inc., Osaka. [http://www zabr sk ega ery com/Sawada%202003/ID400%20201- 300 htm ] P. 21 Figure 1.2. Cindy Sherman, Untitled Film Still #6, 1977-1980. Photograph, 20.3 X 25.4 cm. Collection of Museum of Modern Art, New York. [http://www moma org/ nteract ves/exh b t ons/1997/sherman/ unt t ed06 htm ] P. 22 Figure 1.3. Andy Warhol, Self-Portrait in Drag, 1981. Poloaroid, 10.8 X 8.6 cm. Collection of the Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh. P. 22 Figure 1.4. Kim Connerton, Sylvia Plath, 2009. Transparent photograph, acrylic mirror, perspex, 39 X 29 cm. Collection of the artist. P. 23 Figure 1.5. Kim Connerton, Nico (I canʼt put you in a plastic box), 2008-2009. Dura-clear photograph, mirror, perspex, 31 X 21cm. Collection of the artist. P. 23 Figure 1.6. Kim Connerton, Yes Yoko Ono, Loose Projects, 2006. Video still, 3.5 minutes in duration, shown on monitor. Collection of the artist. P. 23 Figure 1.7. Michelangelo Caravaggio, Narcissus, 1598-1599. Oil on canvas, 110 X 92 cm.
Galleria Nazionale dʼArte Antica, Rome. [http://www sh mer edu/greatbooks greatart/ mages/artwork/ Caravagg o%20Narc ssus jpg htm ] P. 28
Figure 1.8. Kim Connerton, Mirror Self-Portrait 1, 2009. Dura-clear photograph, mirror, pespex, 79 cm diameter. Collection of the artist. P. 29
Figure 1.9. Albrecht Dürer, Self-Portrait at 28,1500. Oil on panel, 67 X 49 cm. Collection of Alte Pinakothek, Munich. [http://www b b o org/wm/pa nt/auth/durer/se f/se f-28 jpg htm ] P. 29
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Figure 1.10. Parmigianino, Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror, 1524. Oil on wood, 24.4 cm diameter. Collection Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna. [http://www wga hu/art/p/parm g a/convex jpg htm ] P. 32 Figure 1.11. Kim Connerton, Self-Portrait 2, 2009.
Dura-clear photograph, mirror, perspex, 78 cm diameter. Collection of the artist. P. 32
Figure 1.12. Eleanor Antin, Carving: A Traditional Sculpture, 1973. Photographs, text, 18 X 12.5 cm. Collection of Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago. [http:// auramars f es wordpress com/2009/01/d et-e eanor-ant n jpg htm ] P. 34 Figure 1.13. Tracey Moffatt, Being Georgia OʼKeefe, 2005. Photograph, 58 X 43 cm. Collection of Roxlyn Oxley 9, Sydney. [http://www ros ynox ey9 com au/art sts/26/Tracey Moffatt/385/ 36951/htm ] P. 38 Figure 1.14. Tracey Moffatt, Being Lee Krasner, 2005. Photograph, 58 X 43 cm. Collection of Roslyn Oxley 9, Sydney. [http://www ros ynox ey9 com au/art sts/26/Tracey Moffatt/385/ 36945/htm ] P. 38
Figure 1.15. Kim Connerton, Warhol Reincarnated, 2009. Video & photographic installation, dimensions vary. Collection of the artist. P. 40 Figure 1.16. Kim Connerton, YokoPeace, 2009. Dura-clear photographs, prints on Ilford film gloss paper, mirrors.
Dimensions vary. Collection of the artist. P. 41
Figure 1.17. Tomoko Sawada, ID400-(1-100) detail,1998. Photo-booth photographs, 11.4 X 8.9 cm. Collection of Fondation Neuflize Vie, Paris. [http://p ngmag jp/2008/02/25/the-many-facets-of-tomoko-sawada/htm ] P. 44 Figure 1.18. Tomoko Sawada, Omiai, 2001. Chromogenic photograph, 32.7 x 27.3 cm. Collection of Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art,
Brooklyn Museum of Art, Brooklyn, NY. [http://www brook ynmuseum org/openco ect on/objects/5173/Unt t ed/set /8d9000d3d0ef80602615c7fd4e88ccfa?referr ng-q=sawada htm ] P. 44
Figure 1.19. Andy Warhol, Photo-Booth Self-Portrait, 1963. Photo-booth photograph, 20 X 4.1 cm. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. [http://www metmuseum org/toah/works-of-art/1996 63a b htm ] P. 46 Figure 1.20. Marc Quinn, Self, 2001. Blood (artist's), stainless steel, perspex and refrigeration. Equipment, 205 x 65 x 65 cm. Collection of Kim Chang-il, Cheonan. [http://www wh tecube com/art sts/qu nn/b oodheads/htm ] P. 48 Figure 1.21. Marc Quinn, (We Share Our Chemistry with the Stars) MQ1 280L, 2009. Oil on canvas, 100 cm diameter. Collection of Mary Boone Gallery, New York. [http://www maryboonega ery com/exh b t ons/2009-2010/Marc-Qu nn /deta 1 htm ] P. 49
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Figure 1.22. Marc Quinn, (We Share Our Chemistry with the Stars), Installation view, 2009. Oil on canvas, 100 cm diameter. Collection of Mary Boone Gallery, New York. [http://www maryboonega ery com/exh b t ons/2009-2010/Marc-Qu nn /deta 6 htm ] P. 51 Figure 1.23. Mariko Mori, Kumano, 1998 Glass with photo interlayer, 304.8 X 609.6 X 2.1 cm. Collection of Asia Society, New York. [http://www de tch com/projects/s de pop php? mageId=845&name= Mar ko%20Mor htm ] P. 51 Figure 1.24 Mariko Mori, Last Departure & Enlightenment Capsule, 1996. Cibachrome print, aluminium, wood, 213 X 365 X 7.5 cm. Optic fibre cables, glass, 150 X 100 cm. Collection of Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin, Paris [http://www de tch com/projects/s de pop php? mageId=263&name= Mar ko%20Mor htm ] P. 53 Figure 1.25. Yasumasa Morimura, To My Little Sister for Cindy Sherman, 1998. Photograph, 120 X 66.7 cm. Private Collection, Tokyo. [http://www chr st es com/LotF nder/LargeImage aspx? mage=/ otf nder mages/d39147/d3914705x jpg htm ] P. 55 Figure 1.26. Cindy Sherman, Untitled #96, 1981. Chromogenic print, 61 X 122 cm. Collection of Museum of Modern Art, New York. [http://www moma org/co ect on/object php?object d=4605.html] P. 55 Figure 1.27. Yasumasa Morimura, An Inner Dialogue with Frida Kahlo (Festive
Decorations), 2001. Photograph, 120.02 X 95.89 cm. Collection of Luhring Augustine, New York. [http://www artnet com/usernet/awc/awc workdeta asp?a d=424262577 &g d=424262577&c d=98146&w d=424475984&page=1 htm ] P. 57
Figure 1.28. Yasumasa Morimura, An Inner Dialogue with Frida Kahlo (hand-shaped. earring), 2001. Photograph, 120.02 X 95.89 cm. Collection of Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art, Brooklyn Museum of Art, Brooklyn, NY. [http://www brook ynmuseum org/eascfa/fem n st art base/arch ve/ mages/459 1050 jpg htm ] P. 57 Figure 1.29. Gillian Wearing, Self-Portrait, 2000. Digital C-type print, 173 X 173cm. Collection of Anthony T.Podesta, Washington D.C. [http://www caph a org/exh b t ons/past/wear ng php htm ] P. 58 Figure 1.30. Gillian Wearing, Self-Portrait at ThreeYears Old, 2004. Digital C-type print, 182.1 X 121.9 cm. Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York. [www guggenhe m org/new-york/about-us/Guggenhe m- mages/ show-fu /p ece/?search=G an%20Wear ng&page=1&f=Art st&cr=2.html] P. 58 Figure 1.31. Claude Cahun, Untitled (I am in training, donʼt kiss me), 1927-1929. Gelatin silver print, 13.97 X 8.89 cm. San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. San Francisco. [http://www sfmoma org/artwork/10807# htm ] P. 60
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Figure 1.32. Claude Cahun, Untitled, 1927. Gelatin silver print, 24.5 X 19.3 cm. Private Collection. [http://www v n and org/scamp/Cahun/p x/ba d deb jpg htm ] P. 63 Figure 1.33. Claude Cahun, IOU, 1929. Gelatin-silver print, 15.24 X 10.32. Collection of Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles. [http://1 bp b ogspot com/ 67BHDDKqaNg/SPYsDP64OaI/AAAAAAAAL0c/ MnU9QSA1xRc/s1600-h/F+002 jpg htm ] P. 65 Figure 1.34. Claude Cahun, Untitled, 1929. Gelatin silver print, 9.21 X 6.67 cm. Collection of San Francisco Museum of Art, San Francisco. [http://www sfmoma org/artwork/10803# htm ] P. 68 Figure 1.35. Man Ray, Rrose Selavay, 1921. Silver print, 21.6 X 17.3 cm. Collection of Philadelphia Museum of Art, Phildelphia. [http://www nga gov/exh b t ons/2006/dada/ mages/artwork/202-016 shtm ] P. 68 Figure 1.36. Kim Connerton, Warhol Re-Incarnated (Back From the Dead), 2007. Photographic & video installation, dimensions vary. Collection of the artist. P. 74 Figure 1.37. Claude Cahun, Self-Portrait, 1920. Gelatin silver print, 9.21 X 6.67 cm. Collection of Jersey Heritage Trust. [http://zo tanjokay de/zo tanb og/wp-content/up oads/2009/08/ C aude-Cahun-1920 jpg htm ] P. 77 Figure 1.38. Cindy Sherman, Untitled Film Still #6, 1977. Photograph, 20.3 X 25.4 cm. Museum of Modern Art, New York. [http://www moma org/ nteract ves/exh b t ons/1997/sherman/unt t ed06 htm ] P. 77
Figure 1.39. Kim Connerton, Warhol Re-Incarnated, 2007. Photographic & video installation, dimensions vary. Collection of the artist. P. 79 Figure 1.40. Pipilotti Rist, Open My Glade (Flatten), 2000. Video installation,Times Square, NY, dimensions vary. Collection of Public Art Fund, New York. [http://www hauserw rth com/art sts/25/p p ott -r st/ mages-c ps/51/htm ] P. 82 Chapter 2
Figure 2.1. Kim Connerton, Self-Portrait 1, 2009 Dura-clear print, mirror, perpsex, 80 cm diameter. Collection of the artist. P. 87 Figure 2.2. Christian Thompson, Gates of Tambo, Tracey Moffatt, 2004. Lambda print, 124 X 125 cm. National Gallery of Art, Canberra. [http://nga gov au/exh b t on/n at07/Deta cfm?IRN=163880&V ewID=2 htm ] P. 90 Figure 2.3. Christian Thompson, In Search of the International Look, 2005. Type-C print, 190 X 127 cm. Collection of Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi, Melbourne. [http://www chr st anthompson net/works/ n-search-of-the- nternat ona - ook/ ndex htm ] P. 92
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Figure 2.4. Tracey Moffatt, Self Portrait, 1999. Hand coloured silver gelatin print, 33.2 X 22 cm. Collection of The University of Queensland, Brisbane. [http://www artmuseum uq edu au/moffat-sp htm ] P. 92 Figure 2.5. Christian Thompson, The Gates of Tambo, Andy Warhol, 2004. Lambda print, 124 X 125 cm. National Gallery of Art, Canberra.
[http://nga gov au/exh b t on/n at07/Deta cfm?IRN=163877& V ewID=2 htm ] P. 100 Figure 2.6. Kim Connerton, Transcendental Andy, 2009. Transparent photographs, mirrors, Perspex, video, dimensions vary. Collection of the artist. P. 102 Figure 2.7. Andy Warhol, Self-Portrait, 1966. Offset lithograph, 55.9 X 52.1 cm. Collection of Andy Warhol Museum. [http://www ph psdepury com/auct ons/ ot-deta aspx?sn=NY010310 &search=&p=6&order=& otnum=70 htm ] P. 103 Figure 2.8. Andy Warhol, Self-Portrait, 1981. Color screen-print with diamond dust, 96.52 X 96.52 cm. Collection of Ronald Feldman, New York. [http://www josephk evenef neart td com/NewS te/AndyWarho Shadow htm ] P. 103 Figure 2.9. Andy Warhol, Beuys, 1984. Silkscreen with flocking, 101 X 81.28 cm. Collection of UBS, Zurich.
[http://www ubs com/4/artco ect on/the-co ect on/a-z/warho -andy-190/ joseph-beuys-879/ ndex htm ] P. 105 Chapter 3 Figure 3.1. Francesca Woodman, Self-Deceit #1, 1977-1978. Gelatin silver print, 9.2 X 9.2 cm. Collection of National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh.
[http://www nat ona ga er es org/ ndex php/co ect on/on ne az/4:322/ resu ts/10/85847/htm ] P. 115 Figure 3.2. Francesca Woodman, Self-Deceit #6, 1977-1978. Gelatin silver print, 24.5 X 20.3 cm. Collection of National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh. [http://www nat ona ga er es org/ ndex php/co ect on/on ne az /4:322/resu ts/10/85850/htm ] P. 119 Figure 3.3. Francesca Woodman, In the Mirror, 1975-78. Gelatin silver print, 24.5 X 20.3 cm. Private Collection [http://www heenan net/woodman/woodman-43 shtm ] P. 124 Figure 3.4. Kim Connerton, Mirror Chair, 2009. Perspex, acrylic mirror, dura-tran print, 40 X 32 X 104 cm. Collection of the artist. P. 130 , Figure 3.5. Kim Connerton, Mirror Chair, 2009. Perspex, acrylic mirror, dura-tran print, 40 X 32 X 104 cm. Collection of the artist. P. 130 Figure 3.6. Francesca Woodman, Self-Deceit, 1978. Gelatin silver print, 24.5 X 20.3 cm. Collection of National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh. [http://www nat ona ga er es org/med a co ect on/6/GMA%204772 jpg htm ] P. 131
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Figure 3.7. Kim Connerton, Mirror Self-Portrait 3, 2009. Dura-tran photograph, acrylic mirror, perspex, 80 cm diameter. Collection of the artist. P. 132 Conclusion Figure 1. Kim Connerton, Mirror Self-Portrait 1, 2009. Dura-tran photograph, acrylic mirror, perspex, 80 cm diameter. Collection of the artist. P. 143
x
Abstract
This project, begun in 2006, uses photographic and video imagery to investigate
the shifting nature of self-representation and identity, and the elusive concept of
the ʻself-portraitʼ. Using myself as subject also allows me to explore the
excitement of self-transformation.
The thesis comprises a studio component made up of eight overlapping bodies
of work that engage with the concepts of homage, mimicry, mimesis,
masquerade and narcissism, and a written component addressing these
concepts in relation to contemporary art more broadly and my place in it.
My artistic production is characterised by repeated efforts to represent myself in
different appearances by manipulating the surface of my body differently,
particularly my face. For me it is a celebration of the performance of life, of the
ever-changing nature of life and identity. The images show myself in a wide
variety of appearances, and are emblematic of growth, change, adaptation, and
transition.
Ideas around homage, mimicry and mimesis are integral to this project due to
my interest in producing images of myself that are also self-identifications with
more famous others. These are specifically Andy Warhol, Sylvia Plath, Yoko
Ono and Nico. However, my last body of work is something of a departure from
representing myself through another, since instead I explore self-portraiture
without adopting the persona of another artist.
1
Introduction I know of nothing more utterly moving than a face giving birth to an expression in slow motion.
Jean Epstein1
This project, titled Exposure: self-portraiture, performativity, self-inquiry, begun
in 2006, is concerned with the pictorial representation of identity, where identity
is considered an ever-changing performance. In my written and studio work that
comprise this two part thesis, I investigate two ways of constructing identity: the
first by impersonating the pictorial images of celebrated artists who I admire and
to whom I pay homage through this act; the second by constructing images of
myself – self-portraits – that I judge as authentically ʻmeʼ yet I still acknowledge
are culturally-determined by the media and outside influences.
1 Bernadette Wegenstein, Getting Under the Skin, or, How Faces Have Become Obsolete (Cambridge: MIT Press, 2006), 231.
2
Figure 1, Kim Connerton, Inhabiting the Space of Being Open, 2010
The concept of the authentic self, in this thesis refers to the unique way a self
performs while experiencing the bodyʼs inhabitation of space and spaceʼs
inhabitation of the body, which is illustrated in the series, Inhabiting the Space of
Being.... In Fig. 1 Inhabiting the Space of Being Open I photographed myself
performing the psychological and emotive space of being open. The gesture of
standing straight, extending my arms wide open and parallel to the ground
illustrates an attitude of being open to life. This attitude of openness to another:
life, other people, the unexpected and change – is pervasive throughout my
self/images. The photographic environment depicted in Fig.1: a graffiti filled wall
in a park in Sydney exemplifies the contemporary urban context and a public
place that is accessible to everyone.
3
This project considers how art can draw attention to the intriguing and often
erotic performance of life such as “the face giving birth to an expression in slow
motion” that Epstein refers to in the above quote. I achieve this by representing
relationships between self and other, that I hope also depict the physical and
psychological extension of both through this act. My studio work is comprised of
eight photographic and video series including: Yes Yoko Ono, Warhol
Reincarnated, YokoPeace, Transcendental Andy, Nico (I canʼt put you in a
plastic box), Sylvia Plath, Mirror Self Portraits & Mirror Chairs and Inhabiting the
Space of Being.... Furthermore, as an art historical context for my own ideas and
production, this project examines contemporary artists who also appear and
perform repeatedly in their work, and who question the concept of self-
portraiture, whether this is intentional in the case of Cindy Sherman or not in the
case of Christian Thompson.
My own guiding question is why I have a strong urge to find and resolve a state
of interiority through my photography and video production and examine what
interiority means in a postmodern paradigm where subjectivity is often one of
exteriority and construction. My inquiry into self-portraiture has taken two
directions. Firstly, immersion in the act of constructing identity, evident in my
series on Andy Warhol and Yoko Ono where I use wigs and props to ʻbecomeʼ
their image. Secondly, expressing a sense of my own interior subjectivity
through portraits that aim to show myself as I feel I am, as contingent a
proposition as that is. However, on reflection, even my works that reconstruct
4
identities of Andy Warhol and Yoko Ono I now see as investigations of my own
interior being, not only as mimicry, but also as homage.
The subject of homage – expressed through the portraiture – is a little explored
realm of contemporary photography and video practice, although my research
reveals that there is a substantial body of photography in Australia relevant to
the topic, and a growing body of international literature that places homage and
its related concepts mimicry and masquerade into a single consideration of
fundamental urges to copy, imitate and thereby belong to a group.
Since 1998 my studio projects have explored image, identity and performance.
My first works of homage were to French filmmaker Francois Truffaut and
German musician Nico (Velvet Underground). I also made photographic and
video self-portraits that explored various aspects of my identity. This initial work
was influenced by Maurice Merleau-Pontyʼs phenomenological concepts of
extending the self (the body in space), as examined in Phenomenology of
Perception.2 Merleau-Pontyʼs notion of the extended self through interaction with
the material world concurs with the role of homage in my work, since homage
can extend the self by acknowledging (through representation and performance)
the gifts received from a celebrated artist one resonates with. Homage was an
element in my earlier work and is now the dominant investigation of this PhD.
The PhD gave me the opportunity to formalize the art historical and theoretical
contexts for my interests in the idea of homage through portraiture and develop
2 Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Phenomenology of Perception (New York: Routledge Classic Edition, 2002), 74.
5
the terrain for others by comparing Australian and international art and literature
relevant to the subject.
Initially when this project began in 2006 it was titled Knowing the Self through
the Other, a title that encapsulates my ongoing fascination with the selfʼs
formation by its many relationships with other selves. The focus in Knowing the
Self Through the Other was autobiography and the self and other examined
from a literary and sociological perspective. The exchanges between self and
other that are mimicked in contemporary photographic and performative self-
portraits was the area I wanted to research more closely. Concurrently, I
performed in my photographs and videos and began exploring contemporary
theories behind the representational exchanges of self and other, in particular
when artists perform in their photographs and videos. In my studio practice I
developed video self-portraits and paid homage to Nico and Truffaut in digital
works shown on monitors and as projections. I mimicked how Nico looked with
props and reinterpreted a scene from Truffautʼs film The Man Who Loved
Women.3 These were constructed mixed-media installations with photographic
elements.
However, over the course of my study the title of this research has changed to
Exposure: self-portraiture, performativity, self-inquiry because this reflects the
shift in my research to explore contemporary subjectivity by examining
performative and photographic self/images. I reveal myself in my self/images 3 The Man Who Loved Women, DVD, Directed by Francois Truffaut, 1977, Hollywood: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., 2004.
6
and perform repeatedly to reflect moments of self-inquiry in my photographs.
The areas of theoretical research pursued in my PhD project that are relevant to
my previous research concentrate on interiority, contemporary theories of
subjectivity and otherness, autobiography, and phenomenology. The
relationship between self and other is therefore the basis for both the theoretical
research and studio research.
The face has become my obsession. In most of my work and in most of the
works by other artists discussed in this dissertation it is the face that
preoccupies me. Although my newest photographic and video series, Inhabiting
the Space of Being…Fig. and Fig. distinguishes itself from the earlier seriesʼ
discussed throughout this thesis, since the whole body in the urban environment
is the focus instead of the face. The face, like the body in Fig. and Fig. is the
centre of the examination of homage and the site where the investigation and
exploration of an interior self emanates from. The French film theorist Jean
Epstein focused on the face as a stage for the drama of subjectivity, and his
expression of this phenomenon in words is paralleled in my work by a
fascination with the face in slow motion, apparent in Transcendental Andy, Fig.1.
The significance of the face in my work represents a portal between self and
other (the viewer, an imaginary viewer), as well as the artist and the viewer. The
repeated use of close-up shots of my face “give birth to an expression” and also
generate repeated possibilities for self-inquiry by representing the self in
relationship with others. Additionally, the repeated use of bodily gestures in
Fig.1 Inhabiting the Space of Being… series depicts experiences of self-inquiry
7
through the spacial investigations in the ten photographs that comprise this
series.
Figure 1, Kim Connerton, Transcendental Figure Kim Connerton, Inhabiting the Space of Andy, 2009 Defying the Odds, 2010
The Australian anthropologist, Michael Taussig, discusses the face when he
states:
of mask and window to the soul, one of the better-kept public secrets essential to everyday life.4
Taussigʼs notion of “contingency” is represented by the self in my work, and its
many defining and constantly changing relationships with the other. The face in
my self-portraits is represented as both a “magical crossroads of mask” and an
un-masked “window to the soul”. This “crossroads” is evident in Transcendental
Andy, Fig. 1. My facial identity is always revealed to be a ”window to the soul”
whereas the mask of self is only meant to be a trace of Warhol. By trace I mean
I wear the most minimal amount of costuming to reference Warholʼs identity
while continuing to reveal my identity. The priority is to depict the interior space
4 Michael Taussig, Defacement: Public Secrecy and the Labor of the Negative (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1999), 3.
8
where I resonated with Warhol and to expose and extend the self by ʻwearingʼ
my aspirations that I see reflected in Warholʼs art and persona. By representing
myself resonating with Warhol I am suggesting to viewers that they too can
extend themselves by examining their resonations with Warhol or other
celebrated artists that echo their aspirations.
In this model discussed above “contingency”, as Taussig refers and in, Fig. 1
Transcendental Andy, the self is a space that is inhabitable and that inhabits
space. The self is contingent on an engagement with life and future unknown
experiences. Life is then a “rhizomic” performance space captured in my
photographs and as French philosophers, Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari
state:
A rhizome has no beginning or end; it is always in the middle, between things, interbeing, intermezzo…(and can) overthrow ontology, do away with foundations, nullify endings and beginnings. (p.25 1000 Plateaus)
A rhizome can be seen as the space of being in relationship with life.
Ultimately, Fig. 1 depicts the relationships between myself and Warhol and
between the viewer and the image. The relationship in Fig.1 depicts a space
in art and life not primarily measured by time and when viewed as a ʻrhizomeʼ
is exempt from endings and beginnings, as Deleuze and Guattari stated
above.
Homage exemplifies change and the selfʼs spacial inhabitations. In the seriesʼ
that investigate homage I constructed a visual reality – the photograph to
signify this metaphysical relationship. The self is inhabited in a metaphysical
9
way by art or an artistʼs persona that has affected me in a meaningful way
and happens inside my interior world. Ultimately, my investigation of homage
represents the relationship space of the moments when I felt inhabited or
inhabited a celebrated artist by performing their personas in my photographs
and videos.
My earlier work also explores homage. First I chose Andy Warhol, Nico, Sylvia
Plath and Yoko Ono as subjects to mimic and pay homage to, selecting well-
known photographs of these celebrities that also showed them in classic poses,
immediately identifiable as themselves. The most significant element in these
photographic performances is reflected in my perception – where I felt the
celebrated artist: Warhol, Plath, Ono and Nico inhabit me, as I in turn inhabit the
photograph to pay homage to them. Dressing up is an integral part of my
working process. Using props such as wigs and make-up, and by the blurring of
the image, I made rough reconstructions of their poses and attitudes that
signified. I chose only the most basic signifiers of each celebrity to create an
immediately convincing likeness for viewers. From the moment that the
audience recognises Warhol or Ono in my work, I have succeeded in changing
places with that celebrity, and this is what I was seeking.
The tactics used to facilitate Yes Yoko Ono, Warhol Reincarnated, YokoPeace,
Nico (I canʼt put you in a plastic box), Sylvia Plath, Transcendental Andy, Mirror
Self-Portraits & Mirror Chairs and Inhabiting the Space of Being…include
performing the homage to each celebrated artist and photographing or
10
videotaping this private performance in my studio or on location. Furthermore,
the photographs I chose to mimic were taken when each celebrity emerged as a
successful artist in the 1960s. For me this decade represents and symbolises
change, and I felt it suited the intention of my work, which is also about change.
The production style in my art is influenced by Nouvelle Vauge or French New
Wave cinema, 1958-1960 which focused on the individual in the urban context
and celebrated the absurdity of life. The structural changes that were
implemented with French New Wave cinemaʼs arrival, which moved away from
classical French cinemaʼs strict use of the narrative, allowed cinema to be more
direct, real, improvisational and experimental, all of which I consider when I
construct my photographs and videos. In Jean Luc-Godardʼs film A Woman is a
Woman, 1961 he purposefully disrupts the sound by not matching the
soundtrack to the filmic image. Godardʼs sound imperfection - a technical
disjunction can be seen to rupture the French film canon in the same way the
activism of the 1960s ruptured established cultural, social, economic and
political institutions to produce positive changes.
In my latest video, Inhabiting the Space of Being…My Manifesto I performative
gestures to address life and the spaces people inhabit from a positive viewpoint.
employ some of the tactics of Nouvelle Vauge when I speak as an off-screen
narrator and talk about my philosophy on life rather than guide audiences with a
traditional narrative.
11
Nouvelle vauge--teknonika
Figure 2, Kim Connerton, Mirror Self-Portrait, 2009 In Mirror Self-Portraits, 2009, I perform in front of the camera, outside in a lush
garden. Unlike the previous work involving celebrity images and paying homage,
in this series I do not take on the persona of a celebrated artist. Instead, I
perform in my everyday clothes, in a state that signifies being absorbed in a
moment of pleasure with oneʼs self. I have never resolved this difference. Is it
any different to mimic the appearance of a celebrity from a celebrity image than
to mimic the appearance of what I assume to be an authentic image of myself?
Digital cameras are my main apparatus. The camera acts as one kind of mirror
that reflects a likeness of my identity to interact with viewers in a relational way.5
I use acrylic mirrors in my later series YokoPeace, Nico (I canʼt put you in a
plastic box), Sylvia Plath, Transcendental Andy, Mirror Self-Portraits and Mirror
Self-Portraits to convey the concept of the fleeting self. The mirrors are layered
under transparent self/images and allow the viewerʼs image to also be visible on
5 Nicolas Bourriaud, Relational Aesthetics (Dijon: Presses du réel, 2002), 18.
12
the mirrorʼs surface due to the reflections. When viewers stand in front of Mirror
Chairs they can literally see their reflections in the mirrors as they are
superimposed with the transparent photographs of my face. When viewers walk
away from Mirror Chairs their image disappears from the workʼs surface, since
they are no longer near enough to the mirror to be seen.
The relational exchange between the self and other is activated when viewers
see their reflections in the mirrors that are superimposed with the transparent
photographs. By orchestrating this meeting of images, I feel I am orchestrating
social interactions that would not normally take place and ones the viewer was
not expecting. The element of the unexpected is important to my work, as when
the video image moves slightly, or the reflections of myself and the viewer
merge. Often it is only in the realm of art that this heightened visual sense takes
place.
The reader will note my key terms are homage, mimicry, narcissism,
masquerade, self and other, self-portraiture and performativity. Briefly I will
explain how I use each one. First I will discuss homage. In Transcendental Andy
I depict myself resonating with Warhol and show my admiration for him. The
same feelings of resonation and admiration underlie all my works of homage to
celebrated artists. Homage is an act of admiration, gift, even love and is partly
concerned with becoming the other by merging through mimicry.
Mimicry is discussed in Chapter 2, Mimicry - Between Us, and is elucidated by
13
architect Neil Leach in his book Camouflage when he discusses German
philosopher, Walter Benjaminʼs, concept of mimesis:
For Benjamin, the concept of mimesis allows for an identification with the external world. It facilitates the possibility of forging a link between self and other. It becomes a way of empathising with the world, and it is through empathy that human beings can—if not fully understand the other—at least come ever closer to the other, through the discovery and creation of similarities.6
“Mimesis” is the philosophy of mimicry. The kind of mimicry that Leach describes
and that concurs with my research “allows for an identification with the external
world” and facilitates the development of empathy between the self and other.
The method I use to represent this depicts myself identifying with a celebrated
artist, and suggests that the self can empathise with the other by seeing their
aspirations mimicked. Two examples of this are the homage I pay to Warhol in
Transcendental Andy, Fig. 1, and in the Aboriginal/Australian artist, Christian
Thompsonʼs homage to Tracey Moffatt in In Search of the International Look,
Fig. 2.3, discussed in detail in Chapter 2.
The next term is masquerade. Thompson masquerades as Moffatt In Search of
the International Look. Masquerade became a psychological term in French
psychologist Joan Riviereʼs groundbreaking essay, Womanliness as a
Masquerade:
The reader may now ask how I define womanliness or where I draw the line between genuine womanliness and the 'masquerade'. My suggestion is not, however, that there is any such difference; whether radical or
6 Neil Leach, Camouflage (Cambridge: MIT Press, 2006), 19. Leach cited Mohsen Mostafavi and David Leatherbarrow, On Weathering (Cambridge, MA.: MIT Press, 1993) to discuss Benjamin and the theory of mimesis.
14
superficial. They are the same thing.7
Riviere was a contemporary of Freud and with her essay assisted in the
deconstruction of femininity. When Thompson masquerades as Moffatt, in Fig.
2.3, he exemplifies Riviereʼs point that there is no “genuine womanliness“ since
he can masquerade as a woman by simply wearing womenʼs clothes and make-
up. The concept of the masquerade can be seen in all of the self-portraits
examined in this thesis with the exception of Marc Quinnʼs self-portraits.
Narcissism is the focus of Chapter 2. In this thesis narcissism is a term that is
used in a positive way to explore the moments of self-recognition that infer the
Lacanian mirror stage, reflected in the contemporary self-portraits of American
artist Francesca Woodman that are examined in detail in this chapter. The
moments of self-recognition in Woodmanʼs photography occur when she
appears and performs repeatedly in her photography, while looking into mirrors
and pushing into architectural spaces. The examination of Woodmanʼs self-
portraits highlights moments of self-recognition suggesting to viewers to reflect
on their own moments of self-recognition. This view of narcissism is in contrast
to American historian Christopher Laschʼs book Culture of Narcissism in which
he argues:
Cameras and recording machines not only transcribe experience, but alter its quality, giving to much of modern life the character of an enormous chamber, a hall of mirrors.8
7 Joan Riviere, “Womanliness as a Masquerade,” The International Journal of Psychoanalysis, Vol.10 (1929): 303-313. 8 Christopher Lasch, as quoted in Leach, 128-129. Leach quoted Christopher Lasch, The Culture of Narcissim (New York: Warner, 1979), 96-97. For Lasch this is a form of secondary or pathological narcissism, and he is careful to distinguish it from primary narcissism.
15
The various self-portraits discussed in this thesis typify the mirrorʼs surface that
Lasch speaks of, since the dialogue and representation of an artist with
him/herself is depicted. The complication and discussion of narcissism adds a
crucial insight into contemporary self-portraiture and self/imaging. The “hall of
mirrors” that Lasch speaks of exemplifies the external view of the self, which can
be vacuous and does not develop an interior world. The interior world I speak of
is not the same as the malady of self-absorption usually associated with
narcissism in contemporary culture. Instead it is the basis for the external world
to come in and be experienced by the self.
Narcissism is discussed positively in reference to Woodmanʼs photographic
self/imagings in Chapter3, which is accordance with Richard Sennettʼs concept
that narcissism is “enlightened self-interest” asserted in The Fall of Public Man
and elaborated on when he stated:
…learning how to take rather than to desire…those who have learned how to take are more modest than those who are rooted in the narcissism of unfocusable desire.
Unlike Laschʼs concept and contemporary cultureʼs view that narcissism is
primarily about self-absorption Sennett indicates that within narcissism the
narcissistʼs level of self-awareness will inform whether the incident of narcissism
is positive or negative. The view of narcissism and self-awareness that Sennett
employs is discerning and differentiates “unfocused desire” as a negative, which
contrasts a more evolved narcissism where an individual is discerning about
what he takes from the world. The desire Sennett discusses connotes a
16
behaviour that in some way fails to consider how expressing oneself will effect
the external world.
In the self/images discussed in this thesis artists offer evolved and unique ways
to represent and examine themselves through contemporary self-portraiture.
The artistʼs selectivity in their self/images suggests they understood what they
were taking from the world.
This leads me to discuss the self and other, self-portraiture and performativity.
The ʻselfʼ that I discuss throughout this thesis is a concept illuminated by the
French artist Claude Cahunʼs concept of self that she represents in her
numerous self-portraits, discussed in Chapter 1. She stated:
We only know how to recognise ourselves, love ourselves, through dreamlike, unrefined and fleeting reflections—moving bodies that we can contemplate only in passing.9
In Cahunʼs ouvre the photographic space depicts spaces where the
metaphysical aspects of the self dwell. The “fleeting” spaces Cahun depicts are
also depicted in many of the self/images that are discussed in this thesis,
including my own. The “dreamlike” self is inhabited by and inhabits the other
while being in constantly changing relationships with the other. The other refers
to other people, art, the gallery, and various aspects of oneʼs self. The concept
of other that I employ is based on German philosopher Edmund Husserlʼs
concept of intersubjectivity which views the self as an entity in social acts with
9 Rachel Kent, ed., Masquerade: Representation and the Self in Contemporary Art (Sydney: Museum of Contemporary Art, 2006), 23.
17
the other that transcends individual perception to experience the in between
state of their relationship.10 The examination of contemporary self-portraits by:
Tracey Moffatt, Tomoko Sawada, Marc Quinn, Mariko Mori, Cindy Sherman,
Yasumasa Morimura, Gillian Wearing, Cahun, and myself represents the fleeting
nature of the self that is also multiplied, transformed and masked.
The concept of the self/image by American art historian Amelia Jones accurately
characterises self-representations by contemporary artists.11 The term
self/image will be used interchangeably with the term self-portrait. Jones titled
her book Self/Image and to refer back her title and concept I will continue to
write self/image as she did. Rather than a representation of the likeness of the
self/artist, as in a self-portrait, a self/image exposes the performative aspects of
the self. The self/image extends self-portraiture to include aspects of self-
portraiture enabled by technology: video and photography.12
Lastly ʻperformativityʼ. In my photography I engage in repeated efforts to
represent myself to celebrate the performance of life. The performativity I speak
of concurs with Jonesʼ extended concept of the self/image as I use digital
photographic and video depictions of myself performing. The kind of
performance that informs my artistic production stems from watching live
performances, in particular Yoko Onoʼs performance in Central Park in New
York in 1995. The performance style I use mimics Onoʼs extrasensory style of
10 Dan Zahavy, Subjectivity and Selfhood (Cambridge: The MIT Press, 2005), 174-176. Zahavi discussed intersubjectivity from Edmund Husserl, Shorter Works, eds. P.McCormick and F.A.Elliston, (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1980), 68. 11 Amelia Jones, Self/Image (New York: Routledge, 2006), xiii. 12 ibid.
18
performing to create an intimate dialogue with audiences. The focus is to exude
a mood or feeling about the celebrated artist by incorporating a gesture that I
mimic from the artist I pay homage to. My research does not engage in a
sociological or anthropological study of the performance of self.
19
Chapter Outline
In the first chapter in this dissertation I will discuss and contextualise my
photographic and video self-portraiture project, along with examining
contemporary self-portraiture more broadly. Consequently, this chapter provides
the foundation for this thesis. The last two chapters elaborate upon the
theoretical connections of mimicry, homage and narcissism to my studio project
and contemporary self-portraiture.
Chapter 1, Contemporary self-portraiture – multiplied and ambiguous selves,
explores the relationship between the portrayal of self and the changing ideas of
self in contemporary culture. The self/images discussed throughout this chapter
represent the self transcending cultural boundaries and widen the definition of
gender. In this chapter the multiplied self, transformed self, and self-
identifications with others will be discussed by examining the work of artists
including Tracey Moffatt, Tomoko Sawada, Mariko Mori, Marc Quinn and Gillian
Wearing. The ambiguous photographic and performative self-portraits of Claude
Cahun that represent a widened concept of gender concur with a conscious
decision in my work not to re-produce stereotypes of women from culture or
mass-media. Cahunʼs work is discussed at length in the second part of this
chapter.
Chapter 2, Mimicry - Between Us, examines the use of mimicry in the self/
images by contemporary artists. The subject of mimicry will be illuminated by the
20
analysis of the work of contemporary artists such as Christian Thompson,
Tracey Moffatt, Andy Warhol and myself. Also discussed will be my repeated
efforts to represent myself in different appearances by manipulating the surface
of my body differently, particularly my face as in Transcendental Andy and
YokoPeace. Additionally the concepts that inform mimicry, including empathy,
love, and homage are discussed.
In Chapter 3, Narcissism, the concept of narcissism is expanded to illustrate the
positive and culturally relevant acts of self-discovery and transformation
reflected in photographed self-representations where artists repeatedly appear
and perform in their photographs and videos. The negative concept or
commonly held notion of narcissism in contemporary culture is discussed by
Lasch in Culture of Narcissism when he compares modern life to “the character
of an enormous chamber, a hall of mirrors”.13 Whereas, Neil Leachʼs book
Camouflage supports a positive view of narcissism and is a key text in this
chapter. Lastly the self-portraits by Francesca Woodman examined in detail
depict metamorphoses and captured disappearances, while illustrating
narcissism as positive concept.
13 Lasch, as quoted in Leach, 128-129. For Lasch this is a form of secondary or pathological narcissism, and he is careful to distinguish it from primary narcissism.
21
Outline of literature
Chapter 1 revolves around the primary concepts of ʻself-portraitureʼ, ʻthe selfʼ
and ʻotherʼ. The secondary concepts include performativity, the face, digital
imaging, the contemporary relational exchange with the viewer, gender, identity
and the female gaze.
The crucial texts in Chapter 1 are Self/Image by Amelia Jones [2006], Self-
Portraiture Facing the Subject [1997] by Joanna Woodall, Inverted Odysseys
[1999] edited by Shelley Rice, Subjectivity and Selfhood [2005] by Dan Zahavy,
Mirror Women, Surrealism and Images of Self-Representation [2005] edited by
Whitney Chadwick, Interfaces Women Autobiography Image Performance
[2002] edited by Sidonia Smith and Julie Watson, and donʼt kiss me The Art of
Claude Cahun and Marcel Moore [2006] by Louise Downie.
In Chapter 2 the subjects of mimicry and homage are explored. The key text is
Camouflage [2006] by Neil Leach. Leach lays the foundation by examining
Theodor Adornoʼs and Walter Benjaminʼs theories of mimesis which depicted
mimicry as a basic human way to learn and assimilate and become more
engaged in life. Re-framing Indigenous Australian Photography: Meaning and
Materiality of Christian Thompson ʻIn Search of the International Lookʼ [2007] by
Marianne Riphagen informs the conversation on Thompson since his self
portraits are examined in this dissertation in regard to homage while also
elaborating on the deconstruction of gender and sexuality in contemporary self-
22
portraiture. Phenomenology of Perception by Maurice Merleau-Ponty illuminates
the transcendental and transformed self. Getting Under the Skin [2006] by
Bernadette Wegenstein provides insight into the use of the face as a portal into
the interior world of a self in my works and in the contemporary self-portraiture
examined in this dissertation.
In Chapter 3, Narcissism, the main topics are narcissism, the photographic self-
portraits of Francesca Woodman, metamorphosis, the mirror and invisibility. The
key texts in Chapter 3 are Camouflage [2006] by Neil Leach, which informs a
life-affirming view of narcissism. Metamorphoses [2004] by Ovid recalls the
Narcissus myth that allows the self to view itself as other. Francesca Woodman
[2009] edited by Isabel Tejeda describes Woodmanʼs photography as
transformative and between the visible and non-visible worlds. Mirror Women,
Surrealism and Images of Self-Representation [2005] edited by Whitney
Chadwick and Self/Image [2006] by Amelia Jones both elaborate on
contemporary self-portraiture where the artist performs identity in various ways
with the use of photography.
Now to Chapter 1, Contemporary self-portraiture – multiplied and ambiguous
selves, where I will examine contemporary depictions of subjectivity and the
extended concepts of identity and gender through the changing genre of self-
portraiture.
23
Chapter 1 Contemporary self-portraiture – multiplied and ambiguous selves Part 1: Multiplied identities and self-examination
It is said that there is always a moment to be seized when the most ordinary being, or the most masked, reveals their secret identity. But what is interesting is their secret otherness. Jean Baudrillard14
Throughout history the self-portrait has represented the artistʼs ʻselfʼ, namely the
philosophical belief of a being and individual who is the source of self-reflection
and self-knowledge, and is assumed the only agent who can reveal their
thoughts and actions through self-representations. However the contemporary
self-portrait deviates from the traditional genre of self-portraiture since it
intervenes in this traditional understanding of sole-agency by revealing the
subjectivity (the condition of the self) is not only in flux but is constructed from
the world around, including the world of media images. Yet self-portraiture
continues to act as a mirror through which culture and the artistʼs identity is
reflected. These reflections of identity can mirror, according to Baudrillard, the
“most masked” self and selfʼs “secret otherness.”
In this chapter the relationship between the portrayal of self and the changing
ideas of self in contemporary culture are discussed in relation to my own
14 Jean Baudrillard as quoted in William A. Ewing and Nathalie Herschdorfer, editors, Face (London: Thames & Hudson, 2006), 209. Baudrillard quoted from For Illusion Isnʼt the Opposite of Reality, 1998, http://www.egs.edu/faculty/jean-baudrillard/articles/photographies/.html.
24
practice. In particular, contemporary self-portraitureʼs role in widening the
definition of self-identity is examined. The steps that follow will examine various
constructs of subjectivity to discuss the fleeting concept of the self-portrait and
the shifting nature of self-representation and identity.
The chapter will progress in the following way. Firstly, I will present a brief
history of self-portraiture by examining a selection of artists whose work
destabilises identity and gender. All of these artists investigate the masquerade
of femininity through photographic self-portraits (with the exception of Marc
Quinn). This investigation is also fundamental to my studio project. The next
step will be to examine the multiplied self through the work of artists such as
Tracey Moffatt and Tomoko Sawada, who use their bodies repeatedly to
represent themselves. Following on from this the transformed self will be
examined through the work of Marc Quinn and Moriko Mori. Next, self-
identifications with others, both famous and non-famous, will be examined in
Yasumasa Morimuraʼs photographs. Lastly, the masked self will be examined in
the work of Gillian Wearing.
The genre of self-portraiture in contemporary art has seen many changes. One
of the biggest changes is how the idea of self is represented. The concept
self/imaging by American art historian Amelia Jones accurately characterises
self-representations by contemporary artists.15 Rather than a representation of
the likeness of the self/artist, as in a self-portrait, a self/image exposes the
15 Jones, Self/Image, xiii.
25
performative aspects of the self. The self/image extends self-portraiture to
include aspects of self-portraiture enabled by technology: video and
photography.16 In this way, the self/image expands the concept of self-
portraiture in contemporary culture. The terms self/image and self-portrait will be
used interchangeably in this dissertation.
Many self/images would not immediately be recognised as self-portraits and
probably should not be. An example of a contemporary artistʼs self/imaging is a
work by the Japanese artist, Tomoko Sawada, b.1977, the series ID400, 1998-
2001, as seen in Fig. 1. Sawada performs forty different young womenʼs
identities in her self/image. This work will be discussed in detail later in this
chapter.
16 ibid.
26
Figure1, Tomoko Sawada, ID400, #201-300, 1998-2001
The boundaries that define identity, gender and sexuality are blurred in
contemporary self-portraiture to move beyond constricting cultural conventions.
Many of the categories, such as the multiplied self, self-transformation, and the
masqueraded self, overlap in the various self-portraits discussed throughout this
chapter. These defining categories are flexible and circle around a definition of
self rather than offering only one concept of self. Similarly, theories of
subjectivity overlap in the same way as the self is represented overlapping with
the other in contemporary self-portraiture.
27
The shifting view of women in contemporary self-portraiture
Figure 2, Cindy Sherman, Untitled Figure 3, Andy Warhol, Self-Portrait Film Still #6, 1977-1980 in Drag, 1981
The depiction and re-presentations of women in contemporary portrayals of
subjectivity and self-hood have altered the way women are seen in
contemporary culture. According to American art critic, Rosalind Krauss:
Indeed, almost two decades of work on the place of women within representation has put this shift into effect, so that a whole domain of discourse no longer conceives of stereo-type as a kind of mass-media mistake, a set of cheap costumes women might put on or cast aside. Rather stereotype – itself baptised now as ʻmasqueradeʼ and here understood as a psychoanalytic term – is thought of as the phenomenon to which all women are submitted both inside and outside representation, so that as far as femininity goes, there is nothing but costume.17
Cindy Sherman, Barbara Kruger and Jenny Holzer were part of the feminist
discourse of the 1980s in the U.S.A. where identity was not authentic but
socially constructed.18 Shermanʼs photography assisted in legitimising the
17 Rosalind Krauss, as quoted in Joanna Woodall, Self-Portraiture Facing the Subject (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1997), 244. Woodall quoted Rosalind Krauss, Cindy Sherman, 1975-1993 (New York: Rizzoli, 1993), 17. 18 ibid.
28
masquerade of femininity.19 This has benefited contemporary culture, while the
shift continues, so does a less patriarchal gaze at women and a forum for
women to make self-portraits in which they direct the gaze.20
Figure 4, Kim Connerton, Sylvia Plath, 2009 Figure 5, Kim Connerton, Nico (I canʼt put you in a plastic box), 2008-2009
Figure 6, Kim Connerton, Yes Yoko Ono, Loose Projects, 2006 In Sylvia Plath, Fig.4, Nico (I canʼt put you in a plastic box), Fig.5, and Yes Yoko
Ono, Fig.6, I perform masquerades and pay homage to three artists I admire:
American writer Sylvia Plath 1932-1963, German musician Nico (born Christa
Päffgen), 1938-1988 and Japanese/American artist Yoko Ono, b.1933. The
homages I pay to Plath, Ono and Nico concur with Kraussʼ notion of the
“masquerade”… “as the phenomenon to which all women are submitted both 19 ibid. 20 ibid.
29
inside and outside representation”.21 The biographical details of the celebrated
artists I chose to pay homage to illustrate this point.
Plath, Nico and Ono inspired me to pay homage to them because they were
progressive and strong female icons that I identified with. Kraussʼ statement,
“that as far as femininity goes, there is nothing but costume” is insightful about
the imposition of the construct of femininity on women. However, Plath, Nico and
Ono refute Kraussʼ notion, since they do not allow the historical and cultural
construction of femininity that is externally motivated to limit their artistic
production. Instead each artist relied on their internal motivations to facilitate the
progression of their creative work and as a result were able to subvert the
production of a mere masquerade.
Briefly I will discuss each of the celebrated artists and why I choose them. I will
begin with Nico. The German filmmaker Susan Ofteringerʼs documentary Nico
Icon provides the basis for Nicoʼs biographical details in this section.22 The fact
that Nicoʼs commitment to her music transcended her tumultuous life
reverberated with me and mirrored the persistence needed to be an artist.
Although she was beautiful, a fashion model who appeared in Frederico Felliniʼs
film La Dolce Vita, she preferred to be considered ugly. Nico was a heroin addict
but somehow found the clarity to perform the music she really wanted to make,
in spite of the obstacles. The title of Fig. 5, Nico (I canʼt put you in a plastic box)
was inspired by an incident where Warhol wanted to put Nico in a plastic box at
21 ibid. 22 Nico Icon, DVD. Directed by Susanne Ofteringer, Germany: Bluehorse Films, 1995.
30
a Velvet Underground performance in the 1960s so she would appear as a
perfect, beautiful, blonde female object. She refused because she wanted to be
taken seriously for her music.23
Although Plath and Ono are public personas their success originated from
their unique talents that reflected their interior natures. The content of Plathʼs
poetry deconstructed the notion of family, in particular the image of the father.
Plathʼs poetry began a discussion that questioned womenʼs roles and the
power structure of the family, which destabilised the conventional concept of
female identity. The success that Plath had as poet in the U.S.A. in the 1950s
was rare and even more rare for a woman.
Onoʼs extrasensory performance at Central Park Summerstage in New York
in 1996 reverberated with my desire to represent an intimate relationship with
the viewer. During this performance the sixty-eight year old Ono wore a black
sleeveless body suit, danced and moved constantly, and performed songs
from Yoko Ono/Plastic Ono Band in her primal screaming style. Watching
Ono perform gave me even more insight into the power and skill she has as a
performing artist. She radiated a presence that was in complete control of her
destiny. Onoʼs performance was extrasensory: I felt this psychic energy fill the
environment with an uplifting and transcendent energy.
23 ibid.
31
Working similarly to Sherman, the homages I pay reveal identity as a
construction. In Yes Yoko Ono, Fig. 6, I mimic Ono performing while holding
the world in my hands, which is symbolised by the globe. I wear a long black
wig and a black turtleneck to emulate how Ono looked in the 1960s. The
American art historian Alexandra Munroe wrote in the book, Yes Yoko Ono:
While her work has confounded critics, her faith in the power of art to open and uplift the mind has touched millions.24
In Fig. 6, the globe also refers to Onoʼs “faith in the power of art to open and
uplift the mind” which concurs with my own belief in art. The identity I
construct based on Ono in Yes Yoko Ono resonates with something inside of
me and mirrors my aspirations. The costumes I wear are minimal. My identity
in this self/image is always exposed to reveal the self in relationship with the
other (the celebrated other). In Yes Yoko Ono I have extended my identity
through paying homage and highlighting gender.
The deconstruction of femininity has shifted gender identities for both male and
female artists. Contemporary male artists such as Andy Warhol, Christian
Thompson and Yasumasa Morimura have used the masquerade of femininity to
expand the perception/definition of masculinity. Warhol “played a major role in
posing questions concerning the social and public dimension of subjectivity”,
aiding the deconstruction of gender identity.25
A glimpse at the Renaissance 24 Alexandra Munroe with Jon Hendricks, eds.,Yes Yoko Ono (New York: Japan Society, 2000), 11. 25 David Burnett, “MirrorWorld,” in Andy Warhol, ed. Andrew Clark, (Brisbane: Queensland Art Gallery & The Andy Warhol Museum, 2007), 31.
32
The art historical framework of this thesis is grounded in the 20th and 21st
centuries. However to understand the historical framework of the genre of self-
portraiture it is important to briefly examine the Renaissance. During the
Renaissance women were not represented as empowered subjects, which
directly affects my self-portraits since I am the subject. This brief look back at
self-portraits from the Renaissance illustrates that self-portraiture originated with
the responsibility of emulating political, social and religious power structures.26
The self-portraits and portraits from the Renaissance represented the idealised
self. This idea of the self-portrait remained focused on the church or social
status until the influence of psychology in the early 20th century. The English art
historian, Joanna Woodall, in her book Portraiture Facing the Subject, wrote:
The first image was a portrait. In classical mythology, a lovely youth named Narcissus lay beside a pool gazing in adoration at his own reflection.27
26 Woodall, 3. 27 ibid.,1.
33
Figure 7, Michelangelo Caravaggio, Narcissus, 1598-1599
As Woodall points out, the “first image was a portrait”.28 An illustration of the
idealised self represented in Renaissance portraiture is the painting Narcissus,
by the Italian artist Michelangelo Caravaggio, 1571-1610, shown in Fig. 7. The
mythological character Narcissus saw his image reflected in the mirror-like lake.
He found his own image so mesmerising and perfect that he fell in love with it.
The American art historian, Mary Garrard, elaborates on Caravaggioʼs portraits:
The link between the rise of the conception of the artist as a special kind of maker linked to the divine and the genre of self-portraiture in the Renaissance, noting that, with such portraits, Caravaggio broke the mold of male artists depicting themselves both as gentlemen and as a special exemplar of the human with access to transcendence. Caravaggioʼs Narcissus connected painting to the divinely inspired capacity of the artist to render the truth of the world (conflating the image with the self): ʻWhat is painting but the act of embracing by means of art the surface of the pool?”29
28 ibid. 29 Mary D Garrard, as quoted in Jones, Self/Image, 5. Jones quoted Mary D. Garrard, Artemisia Gentileschi: The Image of the Female Hero in Italian Baroque Art (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1992), 365.
34
Figure 8, Kim Connerton, Mirror Self-Portrait 1, 2009 Figure 9, Albrecht Dürer, Self-Portrait at 28, 1500 Correspondingly, Caravaggioʼs portraiture “embraced the surface of the pool”.30
This pool was the idealised image of male beauty. As with Caravaggio, Dürerʼs
Self-Portrait at 28, Fig. 9, illustrates the unique access artists had to
“transcendence” and the “divinely inspired capacity to render the truth of the
world that conflated image with the self”.31 Instead of painting an image that
simply represented Christian iconography, Dürer painted himself as Christ. As
the art historian Christopher Masters states:
Dürer has already made clear his longing for appropriate recognition in the most emphatic way possible – by portraying himself in the pose of the Saviour, a striking demonstration of the belief that the artistsʼ creativity ability derived from God.32
Although Dürer and I represent idealized versions of ourselves I represent the
self and desire without a religious context whereas he represents himself as
“the Saviour” in Fig. 9. Dürer affirmed Christianityʼs religious and social power
during the Renaissance by reproducing himself as Christ. In contemporary self- 30 ibid. 31 ibid. 32 Christopher Masters, Renaissance (London: Merrell Publisher Ltd., 2008), 41.
35
portraiture religion is not a determining force in the propagation of the idealized
self. This is exemplified in Mirror Self-Portrait 1, Fig. 8, since I represent myself
in a moment of pleasure. I press my face and hands into flowers. My eyes are
closed and my gaze is turned inward to reflect on the feeling of delight I have
inside this garden. Dürer combined his desire for recognition and a higher status
with the image of Christ. Yet I represent a moment of peace and inner
contemplation without re-presenting images that re-enforce the hierarchy of a
patriarchal institution such as religion.
The external gaze in the postmodern paradigm is different from Dürerʼs
adherence to the hierarchy and symbolism of the church in Fig. 9, which is
externally motivated. The postmodern gaze is an external one because of the
mediation of technology. However self-portraits during the Renaissance
demanded an external gaze, since the priority was to emulate the patriarchal
institutions of culture, religion and the family. The construction of subjectivity
during the Renaissance that was motivated by institutions prohibited self-
portraiture from being a forum for artists to represent their subjective experience
as I do in Mirror Self-Portrait 1.
The portraiture of the Renaissance supported aristocratic ideology, a concept
clarified by Woodall:
Portraiture also articulated the patriarchal principle of genealogy upon which ideology was built…the circulation of portraits could mirror and expand the system of personal patronage whereby power, privilege and wealth were distributed. Their uses included arranging dynastic marital alliances, disseminating the image of sovereign power, commemorating and characterising different
36
events and stages of reign, eliciting the love and reverence due to oneʼs lord, ancestor or relative…the raison dʼêtre of these images was actually to represent sitters as worthy of love, honour, respect and authority. It was not just that the real was confused with the ideal, but that divine virtue was the ultimate, permanent reality.33
Woodall describes the details of how portraiture represented and reinforced “the
patriarchal principle of genealogy upon which ideology was built”.34
Contemporary self-portraiture has shifted far from this function, it is not
obligated to emulate religious imagery or “dynastic marital alliances”.35 In fact it
is particularly evident that the contemporary artists discussed in this chapter
deconstruct the patriarchal constructions of the self. Contemporary art no longer
operates under a Christian framework. A major shift in self-portraiture occurred
in the early 20th century with the development of psychoanalytical frameworks;
artists began to use portraiture to expose the hidden parts of themselves.
Rather than simply illustrating the selfʼs relationship with culture, psychology
assisted artists in exposing their personal views, an idea described by
Heidegger:
art work becomes the object of mere subjective experience, and consequently art is considered to be an expression of human life.36
An important shift is defined here. The shift that happened in the beginning of
the 20th century, before Heidegger asserted his argument, was that art was not
used to emulate the prevailing power structure. Instead it acted as a forum for
artists to express what they wanted to about life.
33 Woodall, 3. 34 ibid. 35 ibid. 36 Martin Heidegger, as quoted in Jones, 5. Jones quoted Martin Heidegger, “The Age of the World Picture”, 1938, in The Question Concerning Technology, and Other Essays, trans. William Lovitt. (New York: Harper & Row, 1977), 132-134.
37
Figure 10, Parmigianino, Self-Portrait Figure 11, Kim Connerton, Self-Portrait 2, 2009
in a Convex Mirror, 1524
As seen earlier in this chapter in Caravaggiosʼs Narcissus, Fig. 7, the lake acts
as the mirror-like apparatus that reflects Narcissusʼ image back to him.
Correspondingly, the self-portrait in the past has used the mirror to facilitate the
mimetic act of representing oneself. Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror, painted by
Parmigianino in 1524, Fig. 10, represents the artistʼs face and hand painted
from his mirror reflection. Of this painting Woodall wrote that “the optical
distortion” clearly does “nothing to disturb the composure of the juvenile
Parmigianino” who has an ”air of absolute self-possesion”.37
As Caravaggio and Dürer asserted their individuality in their portraits,
Parmigianino asserts his individuality by “optically distorting” his reflection. Yet
Parmagianino used the mirror in an atypical way. During the Renaissance
period the mirror aided self-portraiture by reflecting the artistʼs self back to him. 37 Woodall, 170.
38
Instead, Parmagianino used the image that was reflected on the surface of the
convex mirror to comprise his self-portrait. In other words, Parmagianino
inferred that he deliberately wanted his painting to look like a mirror reflection.
The mimetic device of the mirror was important to Parmagianino and I in the
completion of our self-portraits. Parmagianino employed the mirror to see his
own image and paint his self-portrait. Instead I use two mirrors to produce Self-
Portrait 2, Fig. 11, which is a photographic mirror object. One of the mirrors is a
material in Fig. 11 and the other mirror is the camera I use to represent my
likeness. The circular acrylic mirror in Fig. 11 sits behind a transparent
duraclear photograph of me. The presence of this mirror allows the viewer to be
in the work by appearing on the mirrorʼs surface. This is a temporal and
contingent relationship that is based on where the viewer stands in relationship
to Fig. 11.
The relationship Parmagianino and I have with the viewer is specific to the time
we produced our self-portraits in. The relationship I have with the viewer, in the
21st century, depicts subjectivity as changeable. However the subjectivity in
Parmagianinoʼs painting is fixed, since the viewer cannot be immersed in or
change it in some way. In Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror Parmagianino
confronts the viewer with a direct stare, allowing the viewer to have a sense of
reciprocity since they are looking at his likeness and being looked at by it.
Yet this painting, as the Renaissance would dictate, is meant to be looked at
and not physically interacted with, as contemporary self-portraiture would allow.
39
Concurrently, in Fig. 11, the viewer is literally immersed in the photograph, since
it is transparent and they can see themselves in the mirror that is overlaid with
the photograph. This relational engagement in contemporary art is highlighted in
Nicolas Bourriaudʼs book Relational Aesthetics and conveys the main concept
of subjectivity in my self-portraits, that the contemporary construction of
subjectivity is defined by its many relationships with the other.
The representations of the self in the Renaissance exemplified an ideal beauty
as defined by Christianity. In Self-Portrait 2 I depict a soft, sensual and feminine
beauty that looks inward to subvert the exteriority of contemporary culture. In,
Fig. 10, Parmagianino depicts himself exhibiting the conventions of male beauty
during the Renaissance. His porcelain-like skin, indicated by the smooth lineless
brush strokes, represents a youthful male beauty that is feminine. This sense of
beauty mirrors Dürerʼs depiction of divine beauty that it was crucial to emulate
during the Renaissance.
Figure 12, Eleanor Antin, Carving: A Traditional Sculpture, 1973
40
Parmagianino asserted his identity when he deliberately mimicked the convex
mirrorʼs view in his painting, revealing his process. To expose the process was
an inventive and unusual gesture, for an artwork of this period. In contemporary
art from the 1960s onwards, exposing the process of art became much more
common. Contemporary photographic performances that illustrate the artistʼs
process also facilitate the depiction of multiplied selves, as Eleanor Antinʼs work
illustrates in Fig. 12. The performance of identity was often synonymous with
process art of the 1960s and allowed artists to extend their identities, which
would be prohibited for artists working before the twentieth century. An example
of process art is Carving: A Traditional Sculpture, 1973 by American artist
Eleanor Antin, b.1935, Fig. 12. Antin performs her identity while revealing her
process. Antin uses her body weight as the subject of her performative
photography.38 The fact that she performed her weight loss as a ritual is ironic,
as it is a shift away from the weight of art history that Parmagianino was bound
to.
The unique technology that facilitated artistsʼ freedom to express their views
about life was the camera. The freedom artists now have is exemplified by the
many photographic depictions of fleeting selves that I and most of the
contemporary artists discussed in this dissertation represent repeatedly. The
camera and mass media created shifts in art history. The camera became the
38 Tracey Warr, ed., The Artistʼs Body (London: Phaidon Press Limited, 2000), 87.
41
new mirror in contemporary art; the mirror that documented Antinʼs body
sculpture was the camera. Amelia Jones states:
Certainly, then, from the early modern period onward, the notion of the self is bound up with complex beliefs about representation, and in turn with the development about the imaging technologies (among which could be counted Albertiʼs model positioning the painter in relation to the world and his canvas). With the rise of industrialism in the 19th century and the concomitant burgeoning of technologies of reproduction (photography in the early nineteenth century then cinema and the means to reproduce images in the mass media alongside text at the end of the nineteenth century), the premium placed on the individual artist as a source of creative genius increased.39
The “notion of the self” that was bound up with complex beliefs in
“representation” in Modernism and in the Renaissance is different from the self
in contemporary art.40 Instead of self-representations supporting social ideals
the contemporary self-portraiture destabilises the idea of an ideal self.
Contemporary artists have been aided by mass media and the camera to
destabilise notions of the self and power. Mass media has enabled the spread
and accessibility of technology. Despite this, the avalanche of mass media in
the 20th century is certainly not all positive, as Baudrillardʼs arguments illustrated
in Part 2 of this chapter will reveal.
The camera has made art a more democratic experience. It is accessible to a
wide range of people, allowing them to participate in making self-portraits. With
the camera the individual artist now has more resources and access to express
39 Jones, Self/Image, 5. Leon Battisti Alberti was an architect, writer and painter, a true Renaissance man. He invented a grid structure for the artist to see with. Alberti stated, “I inscribed a quadrangle of right angles, as large as I wish, which is considered to be an open window through which I see what I want to paint”. Alberti, Leon Battisti, On Painting, 1435-36. Trans. John R. Spencer (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1979) 40 ibid.
42
a unique “creative genius” and vision of the world.41 In Self-Portrait 2, Fig. 11,
the mirror is used to literally bring the viewer into the circular image, to be in the
image with the artist. This transparent photographic self-portrait is layered over
the mirror and when the room or people are reflected and appear in it a
representational relationship is formed. Therefore the representation of myself
passes through the other and is passed through by the other.42 This exemplifies
a freer exchange between the artist and the viewer.
The circular frame in Fig. 10, represents Parmagianinoʼs convex mirror that he
saw himself reflected in. In contrast, in Fig. 11, the circle is a metaphor for the
face and a moment of self-reflection. There are three varying Self-Portraits in
this series and each is comprised of my face and a fleeting moment. I represent
myself in relationships with the other: nature, myself, the world and viewers. In
the next section of this chapter the relational notion of self will be illustrated by
many examples of artistsʼ self/image
41 ibid. 42 ibid.
43
Multiplied Selves: Tracey Moffatt and Tomoko Sawada
Figure 13, Tracey Moffatt, Being Georgia OʼKeefe, 2005 Figure 14, Tracey Moffatt, Being Lee Krasner, 2005
The artists discussed in this section have represented themselves as having
multiple identities in their photographs and installations. In the series Being –
Under the Sign of Scorpio, artist43 Tracey Moffatt, b.1960, performed as several
female artists and celebrities born under the astrological sign of Scorpio. The
Australian curator, Michael Snelling, describes Moffattʼs work:
In the documentary tradition of European and American documentary photography there lies a certain active subservience, a willingness, in theory at least, to sink into the background, to watch with clarity. The photographer takes a directorial up-front role when working in non-documentary capacities, such as commercial or fashion photography. Tracey Moffatt works in the
43 Moffatt has been adamant about not being referred to as an Aboriginal artist and prefers to be referred to only as an artist. She felt the term “Aboriginal” was used negatively by arts writers to disregard her unique vision. file:///Volumes/Untitled%201/moffatt1.html.
44
manner of a film or theatre director constructing realities that look like documents but which she often refers to fantasies.44
At first glance Fig. 13 and Fig. 14 look like proof sheets for a commercial or
fashion shoot. The lines between what is real and what is fantasy are blurred,
as Snelling has inferred about Moffattʼs photography. There are several different
poses of Moffatt performing as American artists Georgia OʼKeefe, in Fig. 13,
and Lee Krasner in Fig. 14. By capturing fleeting movements and gestures she
creates forty self-portraits of herself performing as female Scorpio artists,
politicians and celebrities, some of which include Catherine Deneuve, Goldie
Hawn, Joni Mitchell, Hillary R. Clinton, Indira Gandhi, and Mahalia Jackson. The
rhythm in Being – Under the Sign of Scorpio is quick and transitory. The artist
has said of her own work:
The actual shooting of each of the famous Scorpio characters would take two minutes, but the thinking and planning would take a couple of weeks. For example, becoming Georgia OʼKeefe required me to take on her ʻattitudeʼ. It isnʼt easy to present ʻattitudeʼ with your back to the camera. I thought about her morning Kimono-like dress, and what she would be doing with her hands (sheʼs admiring them, of course).45
However, Moffattʼs photographed performances of OʼKeefe and Krasner differ
from fashion photography. Moffatt doesnʼt wear perfectly manicured costumes
or heavy stage make-up to disguise her facial appearance. Similarly in Warhol
Reincarnated Fig. 15 I perform as Warhol with a minimal amount of costuming,
44 Michael Snelling, ed., Tracey Moffatt (Brisbane: Institute of Modern Art, 1999), 8. 45 L.A. Galerie, Frankfurt, GE, [gallery brochure], “Tracey Moffatt Under the Sign of Scorpio”, March 2-April 22, 2006.
45
as Moffatt does. Moffatt replicates gestures that refer to OʼKeefe and Krasner,
as I mimic gestures that refer to Warhol.
Rather than a representation of the likeness of the self/artist, as in a self-
portrait, a self/image exposes the performative aspects of the self. Moffattʼs and
my own photography exemplifies the concept of self/images. Moffattʼs series
Being – Under the Sign of Scorpio is both a homage to the female Scorpions
she admires and a performative play. In the same way, Warhol Reincarnated
pays homage to Warhol and I perform my identity that is extended by the role I
play as Warhol. Moffattʼs identity is also extended by the many roles she plays.
Amelia Jones has elaborated on photographic performance in her essay,
Performing the Other as Self:
The performative posing of the self, whether photographically documented or “live”, is always already a performance of the other. The screen—here the photographic self-portrait—is a site of exchange where the two intersect.46
Correspondingly, in Being – Under the Sign of Scorpio Moffatt pays homage
and intersects with Krasner and OʼKeefe and other women she admires.
Moffattʼs photographs are clearly staged yet they are raw. The rawness in Fig.
13 and Fig. 14 is exemplified by the background, a white bed sheet crudely
strewn and stretched, which fails to cover the entire frame of the photographed
space. Similarly, Warhol Re-Incarnated employs raw elements such as
performing with no make-up and filling the background with crumpled aluminium
46 Amelia Jones, “Performing the Other as Self,” in Sidonia Smith and Julia Watson, eds., Interfaces Women Autobiography Image Performance (Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press, 2002), 83.
46
foil. However, Warhol Re-Incarnated pays homage to only one person who
inspired me: Warhol. Unlike Moffattʼs numerous impersonations of many
different woman that inspired her, which were produced quickly and in one
series. Similarly photographic and video installation that produced the seeds for
the later series, Transcendental Andy.
Traces of another
The way the self is costumed for Moffatt when she performs as another is like a
trace of another, rather than a disguise that hides her self. A trace is a residue
of another placed over the body of the performer. The representation of the
body acts as a screen. The photographic screen is a Lacanian notion that
Amelia Jones refers to when stating:
the subject is always already photo-graphed in the purview of the gaze, playing with the photograph as screen, the site where subject and object intertwine to produce intersubjective—and social—meaning.47
The screen that Lacan and Jones describe is the activity of the photograph
reproducing the self. The trace is the residue of another laced over the artistʼs
body as she produces “intersubjective and social meaning”.48 The social
meaning that Moffatt creates is to extend the boundaries of identity, and to
create a link between herself and celebrated women in contemporary culture.
47 ibid., 77. 48 ibid., 77.
47
Figure 16, Kim Connerton, YokoPeace, FirstDraft, Sydney, 2009
The masquerade of wearing a residue or a trace of another person, particularly
in my photographs, is crucial. The effect of this on identity is explained by
Amelia Jones:
Identity passes beyond visibility; it may be partially accessed through the visible realm, but this visible realm is always already a tangible, corporeal realm, and one in which the self always refers in bodily ways to others, and vice versa.49
Moffatt and I both extend our identities by representing ourselves performing as
various celebrated women we admire. The idea that “identity passes beyond
visibility” is fundamental to the studio component of this PhD and is evident in
YokoPeace, Fig.16.50 When I performed as Ono I extended my identity by
examining my feelings of resonation with Ono, which was the motivation behind
YokoPeace. The reverberation I felt with Ono was not a visible exchange, rather 49 ibid., 90. 50 ibid., 90.
48
it was an invisible feeling. By reflecting on this feeling of resonation I was able to
represent this exchange by paying homage to Ono in YokoPeace.
Resonating with Ono allows me to extend my identity by seeing my aspirations
reflected in Ono. These aspirations include: singing and using my voice in video
performances, connecting with audiences in an intimate way, and uplifting
people through my art. Alternatively, in Moffattʼs photography she re-creates
Hollywood-like movie scenes that are surreal. The scenes Moffatt photographs,
often made with several cast members, evoke scenes from Hollywood films
about Aboriginal and Australian cultural issues, racial and familial abuse, and
gender distortions.51
To grapple with identity, as Moffatt and I do, we wear traces of others. The term
trace of another is one that I use to describe my own self-portraits as famous
others; in the instance of Fig. 16 I wear traces of Ono. A trace of another is a
performed reference to a person that an artist pays homage to, which I do when
I perform as Warhol, Ono, and Nico. In YokoPeace, I retain my identity while
performing as Ono. In the same way, Moffatt retains her physical identity in
Being – Under the Sign of Scorpio, while referencing the women she admires.
The traces worn on the self of the artist, whether it is Moffatt, myself, or another
represent different parts of our identities. Moffattʼs performances as celebrated
others multiply her self.
51 Uta Grosenick and Burkhard Riemschneider, eds., Art Now (Koln: Taschen, 2001), 108-109.
49
Identity cards as self-portraits
Figure 17, Tomoko Sawada, ID400-(1-100) detail, Figure 18, Tomoko Sawada, Omiai, 2001 1998 Like Moffatt, artist Tomoko Sawada depicts her self as having multiple identities
in her photography. Instead of taking on the persona of others, as Moffatt does
in Fig. 13 and Fig. 14, Sawada masquerades her own identity in various roles
and disguises. In Fig. 18, Sawada role-plays as an Omiai, or potential bride,
whose picture would be sent out by her family to advertise her availability to
potential husbands and their families. The Omiai is part of the dying Japanese
tradition of arranged marriages. The disguises that Sawada takes on are
societal roles: the cute girl, the office worker, the Japanese bride - in the same
way that Claude Cahun takes on various societal roles in her photographs
(discussed in Part 2 of this chapter). As Cindy Sherman re-presents stereotypes
of American women in her photography, Sawada performs stereotypes of
50
Japanese women, although Shermanʼs stereotypes are more blatant than
Sawadaʼs.52
In Fig. 17, ID400 (1-100), Sawada took a total of four hundred pictures of herself
in a photo-booth over a two-year period. She admits to a long-standing
inferiority complex about her appearance but discovered that she prefers how
she looks in photographs, her appearance altered to become these various
characters.53
Figure 19, Andy Warhol, Photo-Booth Self-Portrait, 1963
52 Ken Johnson, “Art in Review: Tomoko Sawada”, The New York Times, September 5, 2005, http://www.zabriskiegallery.com/artist.php?artist=8&page=90 53 Ewing, 208-209.
51
The photo-booth photograph – a close-up portrait, black and white with a solid
background, regular in size – is the type that is most often used for mass-
produced identity cards: passports, driversʼ licenses, university and workplace
identity cards. The origins of mass-produced photography in the late 1800s
were the small, cheap and easy to reproduce photographs used to identify
criminals and to document the dead so that loved ones could remember how
they looked. The Russian inventor, Anatol Josepho, 1894-1980, invented the
photo-booth in the United States in 1925.54 The photo-booth aided photography
in becoming a social and entertainment force.
The photo-boothʼs accessibility and speed at capturing a personʼs likeness both
facilitates the concept of multiple selves represented in Sawadaʼs self-portraits
and exemplifies photographyʼs role in representing her concept. Warhol used
the photo-booth to take some of the first photographs he used in his art, as seen
in Fig. 19. “For Warhol, the photo booth represented a quintessentially modern
intersection of mass entertainment and private self-contemplation.”55 Like
Warhol, Sawada utilises the photo-boothʼs “mass entertainment and private self-
contemplation” capacities.56 She masquerades her identity in her photographs,
in part to articulate the impossibility of capturing oneʼs true self in one image. In
ID400, Fig. 17, it is as if the many portraits of Sawada are an “erasure of the
original”.57
54 Vicki Goldberg, “The Photo-Booth Studio of Oneʼs Own”, The New York Times, August 3, 2003, http://www.zabriskiegallery.com/artist.php?artist=8&page=89. 55 "Andy Warhol: Photo Booth Self-Portrait (1996.63a,b)," Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/phef/ho_1996.63a,b.htm (October 2006). 56 ibid. 57 Ewing, 208-209.
52
Transforming Selves: Marc Quinn and Mariko Mori
Figure 20, Marc Quinn, Self, 2001 Self-transformation is represented differently by the English artist Marc Quinn,
b.1964, and Mariko Mori. Often in Quinnʼs art he depicts the transcendence of
his own body. An example of this is Self, Fig. 20, where Quinn used blood from
his own body to fill a lifelike bust of his head. The Italian curator and art critic
Germano Celant discussed Quinnʼs sculpture when he stated:
Self brings into play the materia prima or ultima of the body—the blood—and translates it into a sculptural material out of which the artist creates a likeness of his own head. An operation that bears upon the life of every human being, it is at once a blood and bodily image, and a way of closing the circle around the limits of existence, so as to reconcile such opposites as, firstly, inside and out, and secondly, before and after, finite and infinite.58
58 Germano Celant, ed., Marc Quinn (Milan: Fondazione Prada, 2000), 10.
53
Quinnʼs use of his blood is representative of a material that all humans possess
and which is essential to life. Quinnʼs use of blood to make his self-portrait
escapes being merely abject or repulsive because he is not just trying to be
shocking, rather his motivation is to “close the limits of existence”.59 The poetics
of Quinnʼs work, that “reconcile opposites, inside and out, before and after, finite
and finite” are exemplified by the fact that he extracted his blood and used it as
material to form a likeness of his head and face. Externalising a material housed
in the body represents Quinnʼs unusual way of examining himself and blurring
the bodyʼs internal and external boundaries. Quinnʼs examinations utilise and
transcend the bodyʼs materials.
Figure 21, Marc Quinn, (We Share Our Figure 22, Marc Quinn, (We Share Our Chemistry with the Chemistry with the Stars) MQ1 280L, 2009 Stars), installation view, 2009
Quinnʼs paintings of irises, in Fig. 21 and Fig. 22, depict gigantic individual
universes. Fig. 21, titled (We Share Our Chemistry with the Stars) MQ1 280L, is
a close-up painting of Quinnʼs iris. The painting of Quinnʼs iris refers back to the
self-portraits in Romantic art that are indicative of the sub-genre of the portrait
59 ibid.
54
miniature, the many representations of the single eye of the beloved.60
Additionally, Quinnʼs work in Fig. 21 and Fig. 22 indicates photographyʼs role in
eliminating the psychological space and time the artist devotes to the sitter.61
Although Fig. 21 and Fig. 22 are paintings, photography played a role in
duplicating close-up images of Quinnʼs and othersʼ irises for the production of
the paintings.
In (We Share Our Chemistry with the Stars) MQ1 280L Quinn continues his
fascination with bringing the inside out.62 In the same way Quinn extracted blood
from the inside of his body and showed it on the outside in Self, Fig. 20, Quinn
looks inside the iris, which is usually what brings the outside world inside the
individual. Discussing (We Share Our Chemistry with the Stars) MQ1 280L
Quinn describes irises as “doors of perception... the link between us and the
world…they are like a leakage of the vivid interior world of the body to the
monochrome world of the skin”.63
The leakage of an individualʼs interior that is evident in Fig. 21 blurs the line
between the interior and exterior world a self inhabits. Similarly to the Romantic
portraits of a loverʼs eye, obsessive romantic love both takes the individual away
from everyday, worldly concerns, and submerges lovers into the cosmos of
romantic love. This can make the lovers feel connected to the whole world.
60 Woodall, 125. An example of an (anonymous) English eye-miniature in the Victoria and Albert Museum is reproduced in J. Murdoch et al., The English Miniature (New Haven and London, 1981) col.pl.35d. 61 ibid. 62 Mary Boone Gallery, New York, NY, USA. Iris, Marc Quinn, [Gallery Press Release], 30 October 2009. 63 ibid.
55
Figure 23, Mariko Mori, Kumano, 1998
Although Mariko Moriʼs art is about universal love it is not about romantic love.
Despite Quinn and Moriʼs similar interest in connecting to the universe, Mori
uses photographic portraits of herself as a transparent deity kind of being. Quinn
represents bodily extremes, by using his blood or depicting oversized irises, to
transcend individual identity and to highlight a connecting force between all life.
The American art critic Dominic Molon discusses Moriʼs art in his essay,
Countdown to Ecstasy:
Mariko Moriʼs…fantastic photographs and video installations aim to…convey transformative and transcendental experiences on a similarly grand and enthralling visual scale. Just as the “Star-Child” scene from 2001 provides a coda to a string of events that encapsulates centuries of human progress, so too does Moriʼs work reach across the ages, combining Japanese tradition, Eastern and Western art historical forms and motifs, and more contemporary phenomena like fashion, science fiction, popular culture, and high technology. Her panoramic, technicolor, images repeatedly assert themes of transformation, transcendence, and visual and other pleasures…Moriʼs highly stylised and reservedly hopeful view of the future presents the interface between man, technology, and an ethereal “Other” (the spiritual dimension of Buddhist enlightenment) as a possible way for humankind to progress into a new era of peace and understanding.64
64 Dominic Molon, ed., Mariko Mori (New York Distributed Art Publishers, 1998), 1.
56
Figure 24, Mariko Mori, Last Departure (photograph) & Enlightenment Capsule (sculpture), 1996
Mori explores Buddhist enlightenment to represent the interconnectedness of
humankind.65 This is evident in Fig. 23, where Mori performs as female Buddhist
deities and transforms herself into a transparent light being. Mori digitally altered
her image to be translucent in Fig. 23, “to present multiple versions of a fantasy
identity, which she has referred to as ʻsomeone who needs to be createdʼ”.66
The being that Mori describes is a metaphor for the potential any self has to
become many different selves. Human potential is represented in Fig. 24, Last
Departure. In this photograph Mori represents herself tripled. The self in the
centre holds a crystal ball to see the whole world and to see the world whole.
65 A. Jones in Smith and Watson, eds., 83, 84. The article referenced by Jones was Linda Nochlin, “Some Women Realists: Painters of the Figure,” Arts Magazine 48 (May 1974): 29-33. 66 Warr, ed., 160.
57
The title, Last Departure, alludes to Moriʼs notion that the self arrives or is
enlightened when it intersects with the other. The other in Moriʼs work is the
universe. The Enlightenment Capsule is a transparent glass lotus flower that
symbolises sitting with the self to become enlightened in the Buddhist sense.67
Another other—the viewer
Both Quinn and Moriʼs art opens to a third other in Fig. 21 and Fig. 23. In the
genre of self-portraiture the American art historian, Linda Nochlin, defined a third
subjectivity in her essay, “Some Women Realists: Painters of the Figure”, which
is expounded on by Jones:
The interposition into Nochlinʼs model of a third subjectivity – that of the viewer of the image – installs performativity at the heart of photographic portraiture. 68
Nochlinʼs observation of the third subjectivity describes the viewerʼs presence in
the reception of the art. The viewerʼs part in the subjective triad and
performance of viewing art is at the very least in the activity of viewing. In
contemporary self-portraiture, such as Quinn and Moriʼs, viewers are confronted
with concepts that transcend the boundaries of life and death. This is evident in
Quinnʼs art when he reincarnates his own blood, while Mori depicts various
incarnations of herself to pay homage to the Buddhist principles of past lives
and re-incarnation.
The confronting self-portraits that Mori and Quinn produce bring up the role of
the viewer as they consider mortality. Their subject matter and form place fewer
67 Molon, ed., 2. 68 A. Jones in Smith and Watson, eds., 84.
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obstacles between the viewer and the artist. In her essay, Beneath this Mask
Another Mask, Jones discusses the complexity facing viewers when she states:
Our role, in viewing the artistʼs self-portrait photograph, becomes one of projection and identification via our own psychic past but becomes further complicated by the artistʼs having performed her- or himself actively as the object of our desire. As suggested, the extent to which we interpret the image as being “false” or overtly staged determines our attitude towards the subject rendered therein…through the process of remembering, we project ourselves into the screen, becoming the person (fully embodied in our own imaginary) whose image we engage or making her over in our own (or our own motherʼs) image.69
Jones is suggesting that self-reflection is inspired by the art and is necessary
from the viewer. The performance of the self in the likeness of the artist propels
this identification that Mori and Quinn also engage in.
Both Mori and Quinn have used their own likeness in Fig. 20 and Fig. 21,
collapsing the relationship between sitter and artist: the artist and sitter (object)
are the same person. Instead of a relationship with the sitter, which they have
eliminated, the relationship is with themselves and the viewer. The third
subjectivity that Nochlin describes is not unique to Quinn and Mori. It is
prevalent throughout contemporary self-portraiture and is pertinent to the self-
portraits discussed throughout this thesis.
69 A Jones, Self/Image, 55.
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Self-Portraits As Famous Others: Yasumasa Morimura
Unlike Quinn and Mori, Yasumasa Morimura transforms his identity and masks
it with famous others from the canon of Western art history. An example of
Morimuraʼs masked and inserted identity can be seen in To My Little Sister For
Cindy Sherman, Fig. 25. This insertion is based on Cindy Shermanʼs
photograph Untitled #96, Fig. 26.
Figure 25, Yasumasa Morimura, To My Little Sister for Cindy Sherman, 1998
Figure 26, Cindy Sherman, Untitled #96, 1981
Morimura performs the same attention to detail and styling that Sherman
employs in her photography. Like Sherman, Morimuraʼs masquerades are
perfectly constructed with wigs, make-up and costuming to disguise himself as
another famous artist. Sherman depicts stereotypes of women: in Fig. 26
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Sherman portrays a young woman tired out from looking for jobs in the
newspaper. Morimura adds new layers by inserting his trans-gendered identity
into existing and acclaimed art to discuss issues of race, Eastern and Western
art, sexuality and gender.70
Figure 27, Yasumasa Morimura, An Inner Figure 28, Yasumasa Morimura, An Inner Dialogue with Frida Kahlo (Festive Dialogue with Frida Kahlo (hand-shaped. Decorations), 2001 earring), 2001 Morimuraʼs inserts his identity into Frida Kahloʼs paintings in An Inner Dialogue
with Frida Kahlo, Fig. 27 and Fig. 28, muddling the division between Eastern
and Western art. In both of these photographs he replicates famous self-
portraits of Kahlo. Morimura photographed himself with exquisite attention to
detail to resemble Kahlo as she painted herself. However in Fig. 27 Morimura
embellishes his figure with Japanese motifs including signs, flowers, fish, and
cranes. He mimics Kahloʼs design style, the Mexican patterns of her clothing
70 Sarah Howgate and Sandy Nairne, The Portrait Now (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2006), 13.
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and use of flowers in a traditional Mexican style as adornments, yet he also
inserts his cultural identity by using Japanese motifs. By mimicking and
inserting he is both aggressive and receptive, undermining identity, both cross
culturally and art historically. The selection of artistsʼ masquerades I have
chosen to discuss challenge the conventions of gender to progress the
contemporary view of women, which is certainly evident in Morimuraʼs self-
portraits.
The Masked Self: Gillian Wearing
As seen in the work of Morimuraʼs self/imagings, the self is masked and an
entity we are unable to completely know since new facets of the self are always
shifting. This idea is reflected upon by the French philosopher, Jean Baudrillard,
in his statement:
It is said that there is always a moment to be seized when the most ordinary being, or the most masked, reveals their secret identity. But what is interesting is their secret otherness. And rather than looking for the identity behind the mask, one must look for the mask behind the identity—the face that haunts us away from our identity—the masked divinity that in fact haunts every one of us, for an instant at one time or another.71
In English artist Gillian Wearingʼs, b.1963, Self-Portrait, Fig. 29, and Self-
Portrait at Three Years Old, Fig. 30, are examples of the “identity behind the
mask” and “the mask behind the identity”.72
71 Jean Baudrillard, as quoted in Ewing, 209. Ewing quoted from Baudrillard, Jean, “For Illusion Isnʼt the Opposite of Reality”, 1998, http://www.egs.edu/faculty/jean-baudrillard/articles/photographies/ 72 ibid.
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Figure 29, Gillian Wearing, Self-Portrait, detail, 2000 Figure 30, Gillian Wearing, Self-Portrait at Three Years Old, 2004
At first glance Wearingʼs Self-Portrait, Fig. 29, looks like a simple photographic
self-portrait of a young woman. Then the viewer notices she is wearing a mask
and spying out from under her mask.73 The mood in Wearingʼs photographs is
melancholic and solemn. Wearing re-appropriated a photograph of herself at
three and masked her face. Through the cut-out eyes of the masks in Fig. 29
and Fig. 30 her eyes stare directly at the viewer.74 Wearing has masked her
identity at different times in her life and by doing this she has destabilised and
confused memory and identity. She both is and is not herself.75 In this way
Wearing alludes to the “secret otherness” that Baudrillard spoke of.76
73 Ewing, 91. 74 ibid. 75 Howgate and Nairne, 49. 76 Baudrillard, as quoted in Ewing, 209.
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In conclusion, the self/images discussed throughout this chapter, including those
of Morimura, Sherman, Sawada, Quinn, Warhol, Moffatt and Wearing, represent
the self transcending cultural boundaries, multiplied, being inserted into famous
artistsʼ art, and blurring the lines between the internal and external. A move
towards a wider definition of gender and women in contemporary self-portraiture
and the impact of this on contemporary culture is evident. Ultimately, the selves
depicted are expansive, fleeting, mutable and elusive because the many
relationships that inform these selves constantly change. The self responds to
these changes by acts of self-inquiry, which are represented in the self/images
discussed. The numerous representations of self-reflection suggest that self-
reflection is an ongoing process. The “secret otherness”, or the unknown parts
of the self, provides new opportunities to reflect on the self and other.
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Chapter 1, Part 2: Claude Cahunʼs ambiguous self/images
Beneath this mask, another mask. I will not stop removing all these faces.
Claude Cahun77
Figure 31, Claude Cahun, Untitled (I am in training, donʼt kiss me), 1927-1929
In this section I will examine the self/images of French artist Claude Cahun,
1894-1954. The ambiguous nature of Cahunʼs performative photographic self-
portraits will be examined, along with the themes of gender, identity, and
societal roles that her photography explores. It is important to consider Cahunʼs
work in this chapter since she lays the foundation for performative photography
and the contemporary self/image. French philosopher Gilles Deleuze and
77 This quote is taken from the text written on Claude Cahunʼs photomontage, IOU, 1929, Fig. 33. It is also the title of a chapter in Amelia Jones, Self/Image, 35-79.
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French psychoanalyst Felix Guattariʼs progressive philosophical concepts of
difference as a positive experience and the Lacanian language used in
contemporary art criticism will be discussed to reveal their connections with
Cahunʼs photography and contemporary self-portraiture. The work of Cindy
Sherman will be discussed to compare and contrast her photography with her
predecessor Cahunʼs photography. Lastly, Swedish artist Pipilotti Ristʼs video
will be discussed to view a more recent societal intervention that extends the
performative elements in Cahunʼs photography.
As this section continues Cahunʼs photography will be revealed as an obvious
pre-cursor to Cindy Shermanʼs photography. Cahun was a pioneer in regard to
the representation of deconstructed gender roles however her work was largely
overlooked during her lifetime. It has taken a long time (fifty years) to understand
her work and its influence historically and in contemporary art. Her presence in
contemporary art may have come just at the right time. Cahunʼs photography
demands examiners that can properly elucidate her pioneering work, some of
whom are referred to in this chapter, including Rosalind Krauss, Amelia Jones,
Jean Baudrillard, Whitney Chadwick and Judith Butler.
Claude Cahun was born in 1894 as Lucy Schwob in Nantes, France to an
affluent and literary Jewish family. During her lifetime she was known mainly as
a writer. A pivotal manuscript Cahun wrote was Heroines, a series of fifteen
stream-of-consciousness monologues written in the voices of major women of
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literature and history.78 For Cahun to choose the name ʻClaudeʼ, which is
androgynous, and ʻCahunʼ, which is the Jewish name ʻCohenʼ in English, was to
suggest her lesbian and Jewish identity. This was an act of bravery at a time
when it could be dangerous to identify as either. By the early 1920s Cahun was
living and making her art in Paris. Although the Nazis occupied France, Cahun
remained and eventually moved back to Nantes in 1938 with her lifelong partner
Marcel Moore (born as Susanne Malherbe, 1892-1972).79 The two lovers were
imprisoned and sentenced to death for their part in the French Resistance.
Fortunately, they were released after four months when the Germans were
defeated.
Cahunʼs main motivation was to be a raging individualist. By exploring her
identity she subverted societal norms and has become one of the most
influential artists of the 20th century. Her conviction is evident in her
representations of herself that typify her individualism. What was lost in time, in
regard to Cahunʼs oeuvre, was regained in a deeper appreciation and
understanding of her work. The subject of ambiguity is central to Cahunʼs
photography. Her self-portraits, analogous to tableaux vivants, exemplify her
impact on contemporary self-portraiture and subjectivity. The impact of Cahunʼs
legacy will illuminate the deconstructed boundaries that are blurred, merged and
dissolved in contemporary self-portraiture.
78 Shelley Rice, ed., Inverted Odysseys Claude Cahun, Maya Deren, Cindy Sherman, trans., Norman MacAfee (Cambridge: MIT Press,1999), 43. 79 Louise Downie, donʼt kiss me The Art of Claude Cahun and Marcel Moore (London: Tate Publishing, 2006), 7.
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Figure 32, Claude Cahun, Untitled, 1927
The elusive self
Cahunʼs numerous self-portraits grapple with the concept of identity. In Fig. 32
Cahun performs both genders. On the left side of the photograph she has her
hand on her hip signifying the feminine; on the right side her hand is in her
pocket signifying the masculine. Her hair and attire are masculine, her face is
without makeup and handsomely feminine. Cahun describes her androgynous
posing in her own words:
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We only know how to recognise ourselves, love ourselves, through dreamlike, unrefined and fleeting reflections—moving bodies that we can contemplate only in passing.80
This statement by Cahun can also inform the work of contemporary artistsʼ self/
imagings, including Pipilotti Rist, Cindy Sherman, Francesca Woodman, Nikki S
Lee, Christian Thompson, and Andy Warhol.
Cahun: ambiguous self - ambiguous gender
The American art critic Rosalind Krauss, in her book Bachelors, has said of
Cahunʼs art:
Cahunʼs autobiographical project not only puts her on both sides of the camera simultaneously the subject and object of representation – but it also endows her, a woman, with the power of projecting the gaze and returning it, as Claudeʼs eyes meet ours, sometimes seductively, sometimes hostilely, sometimes quizzically, from the image. Indeed…the very enterprise of self-portraiture, otherwise so absent from the entire corpus of surrealist photography, comes down to reclaiming agency for the female subject.81
The ambiguous self that Cahun performs in Fig. 31 and Fig. 32 represents the
“unrefined and fleeting reflections” in her photographic oeuvre. These two black
and white photographs are consistent with her small scale photographs.
Cahunʼs questioning gaze is the strength and mystery in these photographs.
Cahun gesticulates and masquerades an ambiguous gender. Fig. 31 is more
feminine and Fig. 32 is more masculine, yet Cahunʼs gaze looks directly at the
viewer as if she is challenging them: ʻWell what about you?ʼ ʻWhat gender are
you?ʼ and ʻDoes it really matter?ʼ
80 Kent, Rachel, ed., Masquerade: Representation and the Self in Contemporary Art (Sydney: Museum of Contemporary Art, 2006), 23. 81 Rosalind Krauss, Bachelors (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1999), 37.
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Figure 33, Claude Cahun, IOU, 1929 Joan Riviere, masquerade and Cahun
Cahunʼs concept of the self is represented by her recognised phrase, “beneath
this mask is another mask”. This is a self in constant movement and
transformation. All the different masks that Cahun employs reveal her in
relationship to various societal roles. She also challenges the conventions of
personal appearance. This performative play elicited the need for a survival
tactic, as highlighted by Joan Riviere in her groundbreaking essay,
Womanliness as a Masquerade:
Womanliness therefore could be assumed and worn as a mask, both to hide the possession of masculinity and to avert the reprisals expected if she was found to possess it—much as a thief will turn out his pockets and ask to be searched to prove that he has not the stolen goods. The reader may now ask how I define womanliness or where I draw the line between genuine womanliness and the 'masquerade'. My suggestion is not, however, that there is any such difference; whether radical or
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superficial. They are the same thing.82
The masquerade as defined by Cahun and Riviere revealed gender identity to
be a condition that was not fixed. Cahunʼs photography confused the meaning of
“womanliness”, which began its deconstruction. The year 1929 was an
interesting one, since Riviere wrote Womanliness as a Masquerade, Jean
Baudrillard was born, and Cahun completed I.O.U. (Self Pride), Figure 33.83
“The surface of I.O.U. (Self Pride) is itself shattered, splintered into multiple
fragments. There is no literal coherence to it…”84 It is on this surface that Cahun
wrote her famous phrase, “beneath this mask, another mask”. Amelia Jones
hypothesises that Cahun:
seems to have sensed (fifty years before Baudrillard) that the modernist belief in a subject behind every image, securing its meaning and value (the artist, the critic, the gallery-owner) was beginning to peel away—itself a “mask” of illusion bound to decay under the increasing pressures of the exchange of money, information, and bodies in capitalist, then late-capitalist, Euro-American culture. The succession of gazing (even glaring) heads seems to suggest such a peeling away: of masks, of faces, of selves.85
The role-play performed by Cahun in her photography destabilises the status of
the subject and object and the self and other. Performing identity ruptures the
Cartesian notion that the self has a fixed identity and portrays the instability of
identity. As Roland Barthes stated, “Photography is a kind of primitive theatre, a
kind of tableau vivant”.86 Cahun was a pioneer to utilise performance in her self-
portraiture. Cahunʼs masquerades hid her femininity to eventually reveal her
self. The autobiographical work that Cahun depicts in her photography explores
82 Riviere, 303-313. 83 Jones, Self/Image, 36. 84 ibid., 37. 85 ibid., 36-37. 86 Roland Barthes, Camera Lucida, trans., Richard Howard (New York: Hill and Wang, 1981), 31-32.
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her identity as a woman and a lesbian. If gender can be performed than it is not
fixed, but instead is a mutable mask anyone can wear.
Performing as men and women
I perform as both men and women in my photographic masquerades, as does
Cahun. The performative role-play evident in Cahunʼs photography was, as
American philosopher Judith Butler identified, a playful way that artists
destabilised conventional constructions of meaning, in particular gender and
sexual identity.87 The strategy that Cahun employed in her self-portraits, to make
repeated and numerous portraits and representations of masking and
unmasking, was a fight for life, an affirmation of her own vitality even if it was
fleeting and fragmentary.
The reason Cahun is such a trailblazer is because she was a female artist
playing with the construction and representation of women and self during the
1920s when women were, for the most part, represented as the objects of menʼs
sexual desire. Instead, Cahun pursued her own path and examined societal
roles through representation and self-portraiture. Rosalind Krauss states:
…the very enterprise of self-portraiture, otherwise so absent from the entire corpus of surrealist photography, comes down to reclaiming agency for the female subject. 88
As Krauss has pointed out Cahun “reclaimed the female subject” because it was
otherwise lost (or desired over). The fact that Cahun represented reflections of
87 Judith Butler, Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity (New York: Routledge, 1999). 88 Krauss, Bachelors, 37.
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herself in art was enigmatic during the Surrealist movement. This was
particularly remarkable in light of the industrial revolutionʼs mass-production of
images. The mass-production of images cultivated an image of women that
supported the capitalistic power structure, but did not suit Cahun. The truly
enigmatic act that Cahun performed was that she produced photographs of
herself that were depictions of defiance. She challenged the concept of what a
woman was in representation because she certainly did not exemplify the image
of the feminine, demure, sedate women, sexualised to seduce men of the early
20th century.
Figure 34, Claude Cahun, photograph, 1929 Figure 35, Man Ray, Rrose Selavay, 1921.
Concurrently, identity and gender were themes that French artist Marcel
Duchamp, 1887-1968, explored when he performed as his alter ego, Rrose
Selavay, which was documented by Man Ray. He performed as a woman and
transgressed his own gender. Cahun dressed both as a man and as a woman in
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her photographs. The similarities of cross-dressing are evident in both Cahun
and Duchampʼs work. However there are important differences. Duchamp, as a
man dressed as a woman, still has agency; for Cahun, dressing like a man gives
her agency in a patriarchal world. Additionally, dressing like a woman allows
Cahun to reveal the masquerade of femininity, by drawing attention to the rigidity
of gender roles.
Cahun and Duchamp were contemporaries and revolutionaries in their art.
Duchamp borrowed the term readymade from commercial culture and
implemented the concept into his art and eventually altered Western art. The
readymade or manufactured object was selected by the artist, who altered or
signed it, making the object into art. This was a minimal way to make art and a
tactic to comment on mass production.
Cahun subverted the conventional, which can also be viewed as readymade
subjective roles, which was her lifelong artistic motivation. Some of these roles
Cahun digested from society included: man, woman, Buddhist, pilot, angel, girl,
monk, transvestite and Jew. Since Cahun rejected the conventional appearance
of a 1920s woman and performed in various guises based on gender
identifications she highlighted the readymadeness and subversion of gender
roles.
Both Cahun and Duchamp subverted artistic and cultural conventions in the
early part of the 20th century. Each artist unhinged the boundaries and
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definitions of art and identity. Cahun altered the genre of self-portraiture by
performing gender roles in her photographs. Duchamp reclaimed mass-
produced objects, which gave artists license to import meaning to these objects.
Cahun reclaimed the representation of herself (as the subject) through masking
and unmasking conventional roles and representations of identity.
Cahun, Deleuze & Guattari and Lacan
The contemporary concept of the self is complex and ambiguous like Cahunʼs
photography. The self-portraits discussed in this chapter represent selves that
are unstable. The concepts of self explored in this thesis are informed by the
photography of Claude Cahun, Deleuze and Guattariʼs view that difference is
positive, Jacques Lacanʼs theory of subject and object, and the
phenomenological position that the others we resonate with reflects us. To
return to Cahunʼs quote:
We only know how to recognise ourselves, love ourselves, through dreamlike, unrefined and fleeting reflections—moving bodies that we can contemplate only in passing.89
The self is “fleeting” and the reflections of the self are “dreamlike”. A dreamlike
reflection challenges the reality of self. Cahun exhibited her art along with the
Surrealists in Paris and London. She assimilated with her contemporaries yet
distinguished herself from them. Cahun employed the tactics of the Surrealists
when she used photo-montage, depicted altered realities, and overlapped
photographs of her self. The various roles Cahun wore suggest self-reflection.
The Surrealists employed psychoanalysis, which had been newly invented by 89 Kent, ed., 23.
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Sigmund Freud in the 1890s. The concept of the subconscious allowed the
Surrealists to access their dreams and imagination as raw material to create
surreal, “dreamlike” realities. The subconscious provided a world of dreams,
stream of conscious writing, and imagery that was not based on re-creating
reality. Instead, Surrealist art could be characterised by distorted landscapes
and unrealities, which questioned the notion of perception, including perception
of the self.
In regards to the boundaries Cahun blurs Rosalind Krauss states:
The realities distorted by the Surrealists and Cahun alike were meant to dissolve the boundaries and conventional notions of gender, identity, sexuality, and art through defiance. 90
This leads me to discuss the frame through which the art I present in this
chapter and throughout this thesis is analysed. Deleuze and Guattariʼs criticism
of psychoanalysis stems from their analysis of Sigmund Freudʼs Oedipus
complex, which is the historical basis for psychoanalysis. They argued that it
was built on the notion of loss (of the mother) and a negative idea of
difference.91 Deleuze and Guattariʼs deconstruction of the Oedipus complex,
which is the basis of the Lacanian notion of the signifier and the signified used to
analyse contemporary art, suggests this language can also be re-examined.
The language of psychoanalysis, as observed by French Psychoanalyst Jean
Laplanche, has infiltrated everyday language and has become an understanding
90 Rosalind Krauss, “Corpus Delicti,” October, Vol.33 (Summer 1985), 40. Available from: The MIT Press http://www.jstor.org/stable/778393 (accessed 16 June 2009). 91 Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, Anti-Œdipus, trans. Robert Hurley, Mark Seem and Helen R. Lane, (London and New York: Continuum, 2004), and Capitalism and Schizophrenia Vol. 1, trans. (Paris: Les Editions de Minuit, 1972-1980).
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we live with in popular culture.92 The theories of French psychoanalyst Jacques
Lacan are used in contemporary art to discuss the subject/object relationship.
The “phallus”, as defined by Jacques Lacan, was identified with the subject. I
found it an uncomfortable necessity to utilise Lacanʼs notion of the “phallus”, as
it is the male power centre that the signified (female) submits to. This dynamic,
outlined by Lacan and contemporary psychoanalysis, is the standard used in art
criticism and it reflects the contemporary reality. It supports Western power
structures and has clarified the conversation of identity in postmodern theory, in
particular the connection between capitalism and subjectification.
This complexity leads me to discuss both the traditional notion of the subject
while also conversing about change. Since Cahun was the signified and the
signifier, she eradicated those divisions. Deleuze and Guattari push past the
Lacanian notion of the “phallus” and suggest a language outside of the confines
of psychology may be more relevant. The philosophy of Deleuze and Guattari
offers the possibility of becoming and experiencing difference as positive.
Cahunʼs photography exemplifies Deleuze and Guattariʼs notion of becoming
since she moves beyond either gender to represent her ambiguous identity. In
this context binaries are merged.
The Lacanian other is about objectification.93 However Deleuze and Guattariʼs
philosophical endeavors challenge the way difference is thought of. From their
perspective, difference is a positive experience. This proclamation is a 92 Jean LaPlanche, The Foundation of Psychoanalysis, trans. David Macey, (Cambridge: Basil Blackwell, 1989), 12. 93 Jones, Self/Image, xviii.
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fundamentally different thought process than the currently held notion of the self
and subject, which has a higher value than the object and other. Ultimately,
thinking positively about “difference” will inform the representations of the self
and other.
Coincidentally, in 1938 the German Philosopher Martin Heidegger wrote in his
essay The Age of the World Picture that “the fundamental event of the modern
age is the conquest of the world as picture”.94 The technology of analogue
photography has mediated Cahunʼs self-portraits and Duchampʼs performance,
Rrose Selavy, Fig. 35. The camera permitted Cahun to take numerous,
instantaneous, and fleeting self-portraits. The photographs that Man Ray took of
Rrose Selavy allowed Duchampʼs performance to be documented and mass-
produced, otherwise there would not be a representation of the actual
performances in real time.
Similarly, Portapaks, hi8 video cameras, and instant Polaroid cameras gave
post-1960s performance artists license to document and distribute their work.
The performances by artists in the 1960s, such as Marina Abromivic and Ulay,
Yayoi Kusama, Dennis Oppenheim, Paul McCarthy and Joan Jonas, can
continue to be viewed in the contemporary context because of this technology.
In the 21st century, digital technology has overtaken its analogue counterparts.
The digital video camera used by Pipilotti Rist according to Jones,
94 Martin Heidegger, as quoted in Jones, Self/Image, 5-6. Jones quoted from “The Age of the World Picture” (1938), in The Questioning Concerning Technology and Other Essays, trans. William Lobitt, (New York: Harper & Row, 1977, 132, 134).
78
exemplifies the potential for artists, who often work at the edges or against the grain of permissible or common ways of using technology in mass media contexts, to push technologies to their limits and beyond – thus to probe and even push beyond the limits of the contemporary self.95
Cahunʼs influence
Figure 36, Kim Connerton, Warhol Re-Incarnated (Back From the Dead), video still, 2007
Cahunʼs phrase “beneath this mask is another mask”, inserted in her
photograph, I.O.U., and her statement that, “we only know how to recognise
ourselves, love ourselves, through dreamlike, unrefined and fleeting
reflections—moving bodies that we can contemplate only in passing” will act as
a guide in how contemporary self-portraiture will be analysed in this section. I
will examine Cahunʼs photography and contemporary artistsʼ self-enactments
using the terms camouflage and masking to differentiate self-exposure and self-
concealment. Although both terms are about assimilation as a way to enter into
a dialogue with conventional modes of identity, I see a difference. Camouflage
will mean concealment is the tactic used to combat the masquerade. Masking
95 Jones, Self/Image, 11.
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will mean that exposing the artistʼs identity is part of the motivation behind the
work. The act of masking is a way for an artist to reveal her/his identity and
employ masquerade to destabilise the conventional representation of self.
Cahun and Sherman
Revisiting Cahunʼs photography, the work of Cindy Sherman comes to mind
immediately. This connection is obvious and widespread in contemporary art for
their mutual photographic depictions of a woman playing numerous roles. In
fact any female artist that photographs herself playing various female roles will
be compared to Cindy Sherman, myself included. Since the re-discovery of
Cahunʼs work a more complex reading can subsume. In almost all of Cindy
Shermanʼs photographs she also performs the subject, as Cahun did. They are
both female artists that enact self in their portraits and have been immortalized
in their photographs.
There are important differences between Cahun and Sherman that elucidate the
genre of self-portraiture. Shermanʼs strategy in her photography is to
camouflage her photographed self.96 Cahun, however, represents the masked
and unmasked self. In Fig. 38 Sherman conceals her identity, camouflaging her
subjectivity to perform a stereotype of a female starlet in American cinema from
the 1950s. The genius of Shermanʼs photography is her technical mastery and
styling techniques. Her images have a high standard of production and
execution, which creates a distance, as the male gaze she recycled does in
96 Leach, 241.
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Untitled Film Stills. Sherman wears this male and objectifying gaze to illustrate
its existence. This is a tactic she continues to use today.
In her photography in the 1990s she highlighted the abject realities of simulated
living that contemporary image-driven culture produces. These realities were so
horrifying that she disappeared as the subject in her work for a while. This horror
can be understood through French writer, theorist and filmmaker Guy Debord,
who anticipated the seeming impossibility of negotiating life in the digital age in
The Society of the Spectacle:
Behind The Glitter of the spectacleʼs distractions, modern society lies in thrall to the global domination of a banalizing trend that also dominates it at each point where the most advanced forms of commodity consumption have seemingly broadened the panoply of roles and objects available to choose from.97
The photographs of Sherman are encasements of postmodern dilemmas. When
Sherman took the camouflaged self away, she looked “behind the glitter of the
spectacleʼs distractions” and made photographs that were representations of the
abject. Although Cahun wore societal roles as a mask she didnʼt camouflage or
conceal herself. She moved away from the abject to comment on gender and
societal roles. Like the personal nature of Cahunʼs work Sherman, now in her
50s, is depicting women who are ageing, which is a more personal theme.
In her most recent photographs Sherman performs stereotypes of the type of
older elite women she has met at her level of success in the New York art world.
Her tactic reveals her identity, while it subverts the masquerade she performs.
97 Guy Debord, The Society of the Spectacle, ed. Donald Nicholson-Smith (Cambridge: Zone Books,1995), 38.
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To elaborate on Cahun and Shermanʼs motivations the American art historian,
Katy Kline, has said:
Obviously, both Cahun and Sherman predicate their elaborate mise-en-scènes on the notion of the unstable subject. But whereas Sherman posits multiple roles, Cahun posits multiple selves…demonstrating that identity is not a fixed, autonomous condition. Cahunʼs surrealism was defined by the unknowable at the bottom of reality. She lived, wrote, undertook political action, and made photographs on the edge of limits where all understanding breaks down, ever present and at risk in her unapologetic ambiguity.98
Figure 37, Claude Cahun, Self-Portrait, 1920 Figure 38, Cindy Sherman, Untitled Film Still #6,
1977
In Fig. 37 it as if Cahun is saying, ʻI am a woman that looks like she could be a
man and today I feel like being a monk. I want to sit quietly and be in this
momentʼ. Cahun doesnʼt wear the image of a woman that the conventions of her
time would dictate. Instead, she dissolves them by her individualistic personal
98 Katy Kline, “In or Out of the Picture Claude Cahun and Cindy Sherman, ” in Whitney Chadwick, ed., Mirror Women, Surrealism, and Images Self-Representation (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1998), 66-81, 79. Kline referenced Katy Deepwell, “Uncanny Resemblances,” Womens Art Magazine no.62 (January/February 1995): 18.
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appearance. When she sits as a monk Cahun posits one of her “multiple
selves”, which represents the possibility of becoming a monk or a self-
transformation of some kind. Unlike Sherman, who “has set up situations in
order to be seen”, Cahun set up scenes “in order to reveal herself incrementally
to herself”.99 Also both works engage with the sexuality of the self – Cahun is an
asexual monk, and Shermanʼs sexuality is doll-like.
Both Cahun and Sherman enact the female subject and “reclaim” it in different
ways. Sherman re-presents the conventional image of women in the 1970s, to
critique its ownership. Cahun enacted her self-portraits with less artificiality than
Sherman. Artificiality is a key element in Shermanʼs photography, which
exemplifies the postmodern critique of gender roles. Sherman reuses existing
conventional representations of women from cinema or popular culture.
99 Chadwick, ed., 79.
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Me, Cahun and Sherman
Figure 39, Kim Connerton, Warhol Re-Incarnated, 2007
My video and photographic self/images enact representations of myself, as
Cahun and Sherman did. In the series Warhol Re-Incarnated, 2007, Fig. 39, I
wear a mask of Andy Warhol to bring him back to life and represent him in a
personal way. Ultimately, I wanted to penetrate the existing popular and
historical image of Warhol and incarnate the Warhol I resonated with. My
performance of Warhol emphasises the act of being inspired and its meaning
and impact on my identity.
Similar to Cahunʼs self-portraits, my work suggests the selfʼs inner life. This
interior world is indicative of the personal connections I have with the celebrated
artists I perform as in my photography and videos. For Cahun her inner life is
revealed since she reveals her identity while trying on various societal roles. In
both Cahunʼs and my work our faces are always exposed. In my photographs
my identity is purposefully recognisable, the make-up and costumes I wear are
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minimal and only act as a trace of the persona I take on. I want to expose myself
as being influenced by a celebrated artist whereas Sherman conceals her self
with the stereotypes she wears in her photographs. Sherman conceals her face
to represent cultureʼs current view of women in her self/images.
Seeing yourself from the outside
Self-image and representing identity are confusing in the digital age since you
often see yourself from the outside. There are negative aspects to viewing
oneself from the outside, as highlighted by Jones:
Thanks to a century of innovative and visual theory and philosophies of subjectivity, we are just now recognizing the often damaging force of the oppositional models of self and other underpinning our navigation of the world and motivating our weird, counterproductive imagining of ourselves from the outside, as we are seen by others, or our projections of negativity onto others, expelling it from our own interiors.100
The interior viewpoint that Cahun and I possess circumnavigates the negative
aspects of viewing yourself from the outside. In the homages I pay to Warhol I
stop and take a moment to feel a connection to someone I admire. This
relationship to an artist is modeled to the viewer as a way to cut through all the
meaningless visual information that comes through the internet, television,
billboards, and surveillance cameras that provide representations of self. The
contemporary self-portrait is a platform for an artist to “navigate the world” from
an “interior” viewpoint. Meditating on an artist I resonate with is a way to dream
and self-reflect simultaneously, hence bypassing “counterproductive imagining
of ourselves”. The “counterproductive image”, in this case, is an image of
ourselves that is not our own and is exterior, like seeing yourself in a
100 Jones, Self/Image, xvii.
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surveillance camera at a store. I express a part of myself that resonates with
Warhol, while continuing to represent myself. I wanted to move beyond the
“damaging force” and the artifice of the popular mediated images of Warhol. In
Cahunʼs photography the societal roles she represents for viewers to reflect on
are like the resonations with celebrated artists I represent, as the roles Cahun
performs ask us to reflect on our own participation in these roles.
Cahunʼs Mask
The tactic I use to mask myself in my self-portraits is similar to Cahunʼs because
it is autobiographical and represents self-transformation. Although I wear a mask
I am revealing that I resonate with Warhol, which is personal. There was a
particular moment when Warholʼs inspiration to me was strongly manifested:
I was grieving over my brother, Johnʼs, death when I felt Andy Warholʼs presence flow into me. The memory I have of myself, during these moments Warhol came to me in my studio, was that of oneness. The internal self and external became a transcendental field of oneness.101
The role my subjectivity plays in my artwork is exemplified in Cahunʼs statement,
that “we only know how to recognise ourselves, love ourselves, through
dreamlike, unrefined and fleeting reflections—moving bodies that we can
contemplate only in passing”. The Warhol screen I created was “fleeting” and
“dreamlike”. The masquerade I perform as Warhol exemplifies the construct of
“I” or self in Warhol Re-Incarnated, and how it is relational. The “unrefined”
quality in Warhol Re-Incarnated is deliberate and similar to Cahunʼs self-portraits
in that regard. I donʼt use the artifice of concealing my identity to impersonate 101 Kim Connerton, artistʼs statement in Thesis [exhibition catalogue], eds. Adrian McDonald and Nerida Olsen (Sydney: Sydney College of the Arts, 2009), 12-13. The phrase “transcendental field of oneness” is derived from Merleau-Ponty, Phenomenology of Perception, 74.
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Warhol. I wear a silver wig, almost no make-up, and use the least amount of
costuming, just enough to create a reference to Warhol.
I use a strategy of masking like Cahun, instead of camouflaging as Sherman
does. The distance created in Shermanʼs images is crucial to her intentions and
reliant on the artificiality she employs. Similar to Cahun, I use a minimal amount
of styling to continue to reveal the self. This minimal and “unrefined” strategy of
masquerade creates less covering up of bodies between the Warhol role I
represent and myself, and in the screen between the audience and the art.
Figure 40, Pipilotti Rist, Open My Glade (Flatten), video installation, Times Square, NY, 2008
Self-enactments can intervene and be exhibited in either a public or intimate
way. Previously in this chapter the provocational and sensational aspects of
Shermanʼs photography was discussed. An analysis of note on this point is Katy
Klineʼs statement:
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Sherman, on the other hand, is entirely absent from her work; her “nominal referent exists only by means of representation”. From the outset, with the moody nostalgia of the Untitled Film Stills of the late seventies through her series of centerfolds, fashion images, disasters…Sherman has been consciously playing to an audience. She has set up situations in order that be seen…102
The self-enactments by Pipilotti Rist are video installations that are spectacles in
a different way to Shermanʼs photographs. In Ristʼs video installation, Open My
Glade (Flatten), Fig. 40, she mimics Paul McCarthyʼs video/performance, Press,
1973, where he presses his face against a piece of glass so that when the video
is shown on a monitor it will appear as if he is pushing his face through the
screen and into the gallery. Ristʼs identity is visible: she is herself, mimicking art
while performing an intervention in Times Square New York. By contrast
Sherman moves into the mass media because she assimilates the look of it by
mimicking commercial photography with her “series of centrefolds” and “fashion
images”.
Rist represents the societal role, as Cahun did, to push beyond its barriers. The
video of Ristʼs face intervenes among all the chaos of commercialisation in
Times Square. She performs as a passer-by who fights to be heard by her fellow
urban travelers. Rist is looking out, escaping out of the screen and inserting
herself into that space of chaos, which is the atmosphere of human and
commodified visual traffic. She is trying to get the attention of the people that
pass by in Times Square. She wants them to look up and see another person
like themselves, negotiating this time and space in a human way, rather than a
102 Kline in Chadwick, ed., 79. Kline quoted Norman Bryson, “House of Wax”, in Cindy Sherman (New York: Rizzoli, 1993) 218.
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model advertising a product to sell. It is a face-to-face intervention that is meant
for the large public audience who would be surprised by Ristʼs video image
talking through this large video screen in this location.
Cahunʼs photography and techniques of examining the self have enlightened the
contemporary self/image by performing gender roles and difference as positive.
Cahunʼs groundbreaking photography has contributed a deeper understanding
into the self as a performed entity in contemporary photography and video.
This section has displayed how the development of self/images reflects the
changing definition of self in contemporary culture. The representation of self is
informed by the technologies available which is relevant in Cahunʼs use of
analogue photography in the early 20th century and in Sherman, Rist and
myselfʼs use of digital technology in the early 21st century. Cahunʼs photography
was original in that it depicted and challenged the concept of self, which
continues to be challenged today by contemporary artists including myself. The
work that examines the self is an ongoing process that is enlightened by the
various artists discussed in this dissertation. The self is fleeting, in constant
transition, defined by its ever-changing relationships with the other, and it
requires continual examination.
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Chapter 2 Mimicry – Between Us
The investigation of knowing the self through the other that was the initial focus
of this research project is concerned with depictions of ʻselfʼ by artists who
appear and perform repeatedly in their photographic self/images. Mimicry is
fundamental to the contemporary self/images discussed in this dissertation,
including my own, since it highlights this connection with the external world and
links the self to the other. One such manifestation that connects me to the
outside world is exemplified in Transcendental Andy, Fig. 6. Mimicking Warhol
by paying homage and inhabiting his self-portraits allows me to identify with the
external world and represent this exchange to viewers.
Contemporary self-portraiture is a platform to investigate the shifting nature of
self-representation and identity. Mimicry is a key component in the self/images
discussed in this chapter that represent the self assimilating with the other,
hence extending identity. The process for examining mimicry will be the analysis
of the work of contemporary artists such as Christian Thompson, Tracey Moffatt,
Andy Warhol and myself. Thompson and I mimic celebrated artists such as
Warhol and Moffatt. We both highlight the knowledge gained from mimicking
Warhol and Moffatt by depicting ourselves transformed in our self-portraits.
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What is Mimicry? What is Mimesis?
The terms mimesis and mimicry will be used interchangeably. In general the
term mimicry is an action of mimicking and mimesis is the theory of that action.
Mimicry is a fundamental process by which human knowledge is attained. The
insights English architect and theorist Neil Leach formulates about mimicry in his
book Camouflage, 2006, are significant throughout this chapter. Mimicry in
contemporary self-portraiture, along with the production of mimesis and homage
will be discussed.
The theories of mimesis by the German Philosophers Walter Benjamin and
Theodor W. Adorno are the theories that Leach sought to clarify the concept of
mimicry in Camouflage. Leach discusses Benjaminʼs theories of mimesis when
he states:
For Benjamin, the concept of mimesis allows for an identification with the external world. It facilitates the possibility of forging a link between self and other. It becomes a way of empathizing with the world, and it is through empathy that human beings can—if not fully understand the other—at least come ever closer to the other, through the discovery and creation of similarities.103
Self-portraiture is a visual representation of a link between self and the other. It
provides an alternative view to the isolation and mass-produced simulations that
characterise 21st century life and culture. The artists discussed in this chapter
utilise mimicry to represent the contemporary self, as an entity defined by its
relationship with an other. My own desire to destabilise the mass-produced
image machine led me to photograph myself in a natural setting that does not
103 Leach, 19. Leach cited Mohsen Mostafavi and David Leatherbarrow, On Weathering (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1993) to discuss Benjamin and the theory of mimesis.
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reproduce an existing image but instead reproduces a recognised experience.
The identifications between selves and others are depicted in the contemporary
self-portraits that are discussed throughout this chapter.
The main ideas Leach extracts from Adornoʼs theories of mimetics are evident
when Leach explains:
Mimesis for Adorno does not pertain to the relation between the sign and the referent; it is not a category of representation. Rather, it aims at a mode of subjective experience, a preverbal form of cognition, which is rendered objective in works of art, summoned by the density of their construction.104
The “subjective experience” that Adornoʼs theory of mimicry speaks to is at the
heart of contemporary self-portraiture. The gestures mimicked when artists pay
homage to other artists in their photographic practices are a representation of
empathising with the other.
Figure 1, Kim Connerton, Self-Portrait 1, 2009
Mimesis is an active process of discovery, a process evident in Fig. 1.
In the Mirror Self-Portrait series I mimic moments that people remember on a
sensual level. One such moment is inhaling the scent of a flower. In Self-Portrait 104 ibid., 34.
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I mimic and reproduce a moment that illustrates being alone with the self. Self-
discovery can be as simple as experiencing the self alone and in a specific
place, such as the garden depicted in Fig. 1. In this case it is an interior
experience. In this image I am ʻdead to the worldʼ for a moment as my
experience at that precise second dominates my consciousness. The visual
depiction of inhaling a pleasant scent is based on my memory and relies on a
cultural understanding, that viewers have experienced a similar pleasure. This
reproduced experience of the artist in my Self-Portraits is reflected back to
viewers and is mimicked behaviour as I reconstruct a private moment.
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Chapter 2, Part 1: Mimesis in Contemporary Culture – A Line of
Flight The link between imagination and culture that begins early in life is observed by
Leach when he states:
It is as though a childʼs creative imagination – the capacity for indulging in make-believe – gives it a greater ability to assimilate. This, in turn, lays the foundation for cultural activities in adult life.105
Mimicry is an automatic gesture that facilitates the childʼs lucid and creative
imagination. This is a precursor to contemporary self/images where an artist
performs another artistʼs work. The imaginative play and mimicry by Australian
Aboriginal artist Christian Bumbarra Thompson, b.1978, in his photograph,
Gates of Tambo Tracey Moffatt, 2004, echoes Tracey Moffattʼs photographic
reflections.
The blurred categories of identity in Gates of Tambo Tracey Moffatt include
gender, sexuality, and the contemporary Aboriginal artist. Thompsonʼs
assimilation with Moffattʼs photography elucidates the unstable self, its
boundaries slippery.
105 Leach, 27.
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Figure 2, Christian Bumbarra Thompson, Gates of Tambo Tracey Moffatt, 2004.
Thompson imitates Moffatt to learn how she constructs her artistic concepts in
photographs from an Aboriginal perspective. For Thompson, Moffattʼs work and
life act as a catalyst that he reflects in his photography. This style of mimicry is
elaborated upon by Adorno:
The urge to imitate and to look for similarities lies at the heart of the human condition: “The human is indissolubly linked with imitation: a human being become human at all by imitating other human beings.”106
In Gates of Tambo Tracey Moffatt, Fig. 2, Thompson masquerades his identity
with the identity of Moffattʼs that is represented in her photographic
performances. Thompson was deeply influenced by Moffatt as teenager, as he
explains:
She has really set a precedent and demonstrated to the other Aboriginal artists that we donʼt have to render… that we actually have more of a global message to think about… I think it was really unusual for me as a young teenager to open up this magazine and read this article on Tracey
106 Leach, 19. Leach quoted from Theodor W. Adorno, Minima Moralia, trans. E.F.N. Jephcott (London: Verso, 1978), 154.
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Moffatt. She is from Queensland and of Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal decent you know. I could see myself in her. I thought if she could do it I could do it as well.107
The strategy Thompson uses to express his admiration for Moffatt is elaborated
on by Riphagen:
Employing mimicry as a conscious, artistic strategy, the artist has created a work that, although does not form an exact copy, clearly references Moffattʼs original photograph.108
The similarities Thompson shares with Moffatt represent the “human
indissoluble link with imitation”.109 Thompson saw himself in Moffattʼs Self-
Portrait, 1999, Fig. 4, and mimicked her to reference this original photograph.110
Moffatt and Thompson are both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal, were born in
Queensland, are photographers, and have achieved success in the international
art world.111 In Search of the International Look, Fig. 3, pays homage to Moffatt
and speaks to the postmodern discourse of identity in an even more
contemporary way than Moffattʼs Self-Portrait, Fig. 4, did. Moffattʼs Self-Portrait
will be examined first as she is Thompsonʼs predecessor who has inspired his
work.112
107 Marianne Riphagen, “Re-framing Indigenous Australian Photography: Meaning and Materiality of Christian Thompsonʼs ʻIn Search of the International Lookʼ,” The Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology 8, 2007: 337. Riphagen quotes from a personal communication with Thompson on 10 August 2006. 108 ibid, 336. 109 Leach, 19. 110 Riphagen, 336. 111 ibid. 112 ibid.
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Figure 3, Christian Thompson, In Search Figure 4, Tracey Moffatt, Self Portrait, 1999 of the International Look, 2005
In Self-Portrait, Fig. 4, Moffatt stands straight and confidently. The background
of the Australian desert is out of focus and could be real or a studio backdrop.
Her eyes are hidden behind sunglasses and she looks beyond the frame. She is
dressed like a modern day Aboriginal Grace Kelly: stylish, detached, like a
Hollywood actress. Self-Portrait could be a poster for a Hollywood movie, which
is reminiscent of Moffattʼs multi-spliced cinematic videos appropriated from
popular cinema.113 The self that Moffatt represents in Self-Portrait is fragmentary
and seeks to re-focus the gaze of Australian culture. Moffatt takes charge of the
gaze when she actually (and metaphorically) looks beyond the existing way
Australian culture saw an Aboriginal woman in 1999. She depicts herself as a
sophisticated Australian and Aboriginal woman who works with photography.
113 Riphagen, 337.
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The Hollywood-like veneer that Moffatt employs brings to mind Baudrillardʼs
critique of realness. The artificiality that Baudrillard speaks of concurs with
Moffattʼs sets and production style.114 Like Cindy Sherman in the infamous
Untitled Film Stills, 1977-1980, Moffatt used the device of the cinematic image
machine. However Moffatt uses it differently. Moffatt mimics the slick style of
cinematic images. She uses the unreality to discuss her own identity, under a
screen of camouflage. Her autobiographical details are both hidden and
revealed in Self-Portrait. She isnʼt revealing her momentary feelings, instead she
reveals her Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal cultural background and her choice of
apparatus: the camera, which she uses to make her art.
The complexity of defining self in contemporary self-portraiture is further
complicated by Thompson mimicking Moffattʼs both unreal and real Self-Portrait
in In Search of the International Look. Thompsonʼs continual use of himself as
the subject is to:
challenge the persistent invisibility of Aboriginal people in Australian society and enable non-Indigenous Australians to visually engage with an Indigenous person”.115
Thompson continues the conceptual thread in Moffattʼs photograph and
“challenges the persistent invisibility of Aboriginal people”, as she did earlier in
Self-Portrait.116 The layer of complexity Thompson adds on top of his copy of
Moffatt is the layer of him masquerading as a woman. In Search of the
International Look was commissioned and is explained in the next statement:
114 Jean Baudrillard, Simulacra and Simulation, trans. Sheila Faria Glaser (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan 1994). 115 Riphagen, 340. 116 ibid.
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In 2005 Australiaʼs photographic journal Photofile, published by the Australian Centre for Photography, commissioned Thompson to produce a work for their Autumn 2006 edition [ better than ] THE REAL THING. Contributions to this issue discussed questions of authenticity, originality and the status of the copy with regard to photo media arts in contemporary society. In response to this theme the artist created a photograph titled ʻIn Search of the International Lookʼ.117
The overall look of the two photographs is similar. Both photographs are staged.
In In Search of the International Look, a figure of female appearance
(Thompson) is in the foreground holding a camera and the background is a river
and cityscape. Thompson wears womenʼs sunglasses and a shimmery-textured
womanʼs top, a headscarf and earrings, just as Moffatt did.
Nevertheless, there are many differences. Thompson stares away, looking
nervous and slightly sad in Fig. 3. His eyes are visible through his light rose-
coloured glasses. The colours in In Search of the International Look are similar
to the earthy browns, yellows, and oranges of traditional Aboriginal paintings.
The composition of his self-portrait positions his body closer to the viewer than
Moffattʼs Self-Portrait did. The ʻLookʼ on Thompsonʼs face is vulnerable and
slightly afraid. Shooting on location as a man dressed as a woman on the
streets of Southbank in Brisbane he felt fearful.118 In doing so he challenged
himself to work outside the safety of the studio. Seeing Thompsonʼs face so
clearly and physically close-up allows viewers to respond to him in a more
empathetic way. He shows his vulnerability, which can be seen to reflect human
vulnerability in general. By using mimicry, these differences are highlighted.
117 Riphagen, 335. 118 ibid., 337.
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Empathy
The contemporary self-portrait continues to be relevant because it provides
visual representations of empathy, a key ingredient in mimesis. The exchanges
of empathy represented are a barometer that gauges progress in cultural
development. An example of this is Thompsonʼs interpretive cross-dressing
version of Moffattʼs Self-Portrait. Thompson identifies and empathises with
Moffatt. She set a precedent by representing her identity, as an Aboriginal and
non-Aboriginal woman, in a conceptual photograph, gazing beyond the
photograph with confidence.
Thompson pushes the boundaries of Aboriginal male identity when he explores
personal and social identities of gender and sexuality, appearing as a cross-
dressing Aboriginal dandy.119 The vulnerability in his self-portrait, In Search of
the International Look, asks audiences to empathise with him in a personal way
that reveals more autobiographical details about his life than Moffattʼs Self-
Portrait. His gender and sexual identification are uncertain territory in his portrait.
The contemporary concepts of identity seen through representation are
expounded on by Leach when he discusses empathy in terms of the ideational:
I believe that if ideational mimetics are followed up, they may be as useful in other branches of aesthetics…” Freud writes about the term in the context of jokes. Mimesis is what allows us to empathise with a joke. Here mimesis is clearly ideational. It operates through the medium of the idea, and allows us to imagine ourselves as someone else. In listening to the tale of the unfortunate individual who slips on a banana peel, we put ourselves in the position of that individual by drawing upon corporeally
119 ibid., 341.
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embedded memories of personal experiences, and imagine ourselves also slipping up.120
The ideational exchange between Thompson and Moffatt in In Search of the
International Look “operated through the medium of the idea, and allows us to
imagine ourselves as someone else”.121 Thompson masquerades as Moffatt
and reproduces her performance of self. The slipping actions that Thompson
creates blur and transform gender and sexual identities. Through Thompsonʼs
depiction of his own self-exploration and his performance as Moffatt, we can
then reflect on ourselves: what we are, what we are not, what we hope to be.
We can also reflect on Thompsonʼs aesthetic and the particular cultural
developments his work speaks to while we reflect on ourselves. His mimicry
allows us to put ourselves in his place and ask ourselves if we could mimic this
photograph too. This mimetic exchange is evident through self-portraiture and
advances the role of the artist, the audience, and contemporary culture due to
its reciprocal nature.
An important distinction to be made in analyzing In Search of the International
Look, and one that illustrates how the mimetic act differs from imitation, is
evident in Adornoʼs statement, “Mimetic behaviour does not imitate something
but assimilates itself to that something.”122 Instead of merely imitating,
Thompson “assimilates” Moffattʼs art and identity into his art. He resonates with
Moffatt. They share autobiographical details and he wanted to do what she has
120 Leach, 20. Leach discussed and quoted Sigmund Freud, Jokes and Their Relation to the Unconscious (1905), trans. James Strachey (London: Routledge, 1960), 193. 121 ibid. 122 Leach, 22. Leach quoted Theodor W. Adorno, Aesthetic Theory, trans. C. Lenhardt, G. Adorno and R. Tiedman (London: Routledge, 1984), p.162, as quoted by Shierry Weber Nicholson, Exact Imagination, Late Work: On Adornoʼs Aesthetic (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1997), 146.
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done – become an international artist with his photography. In Moffattʼs art and
personal history he found the excitement of becoming.123
Interestingly enough, Deleuze and Guattari rejected the term mimicry because
of its inherent binaries, which are simultaneously the delineations of sameness
and difference. Their term “becoming” does indeed overlap with mimesis
though, as Leach explains:
Becomings are encounters that engage the subject at the limits of corporeal and conceptual logics already formed and so bring on the destabilization of conscious awareness that forces the subject to a genuinely creative response.” At the same time, a state of “becoming” is not constituted by any particular entity. It concerns the space between various entities, and constitutes a “line of flight” between them: “A becoming is neither one nor two, nor the relation of the two; it is the in-between, the border or line of flight.” “Becoming” is clearly an interactive process. It can never be limited to one individual entity “becoming” another. Becoming always involves a reciprocity, a mutual interaction.124
The “border or line of flight” defines the space Thompson occupies by taking in
Moffattʼs concepts and re-framing them, as well as his own identity through
mimicry.
The exploration of empathy will assist in the return to Thompsonʼs analysis on
masculinity. The act of cross-dressing for Thompson in In Search of the
International Look serves two purposes: mimicking Moffatt to pay homage to her
and expressing his views on masculinity. Thompson states:
Think about the fact that colonisation isnʼt just about colonising land. It is about colonising identity, sexuality, the body. Think about how that impacts on a day-to-day life…enduring romantic
123 ibid. 124 Leach, 84-85. Leach discussed the notion of becoming in Deleuze and Guattari, A Thousand Plateaus, 275.
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representations of black, Aboriginal bodies as ʻOtherʼ, has caused many Aboriginal men to feel ʻoppressed and suffocated.125
Riphagen responded to Thompsonʼs insights into masculinity:
Thompson introduces the public to his feminine masculinity, infusing the work with an ambiguity and sexual charge that result from his performance as a cross-dresser.126
Thompson creates slippages between genders to present Aboriginal audiences
with an alternative view of gender. He learned from Moffatt, “that if she could do
it I could do it too.”127 Through mimicking Moffattʼs art Thompson was also able
to reveal his own identity. The revelations Thompson represents and the gender
boundaries he blurs are intrinsic to his artistic sensibility. He defines his
sameness with Moffatt and his allegiance to Aboriginal culture as well as his
uniqueness as an artist. The French philosopher, Jacques Derrida, states:
true mimesis” is actually “a condemnation of imitation”. Moreover, “true mimesis” operates “between two producing subjects and not through two produced things.128
The exchange between Thompson and Moffatt was “between two producing
subjects”.
125 Riphagen, 341. Riphagen in conversation with Thompson (personal communication, 16 May 2006). 126 ibid. 127 ibid., 337. 128 Jacques Derrida, as quoted in Leach, 87. Leach quoted Derrida as quoted in Arne Melberg, Theories of Mimesis (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995), 5.
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Part 2: Homage, a Style of Mimicry
In this section I will discuss artists, including Christian Thompson and Andy
Warhol, who have paid homage through gestures of admiration as I have in my
work. Homage is a specific style of mimicry and means “to do homage or have
an allegiance to”.129 In Search of the International Look exemplifies the gifts
Thompson has received from Moffattʼs art. The admiration Thompson felt for
Moffatt motivated him to pay homage to her in terms of self-reflection,
inspiration and allegiances. Thompson and Moffatt are both “producing
subjects.”130 The production values of Moffattʼs work are validated by
Thompsonʼs homage to her, and through this allegiance and links to both of
their work their cultural impact is widened.
The acts of homage performed by Thompson in Fig. 2 and Fig. 3 are a way of
reflecting back out to the world what he took in from Moffattʼs art. According to
Leach, in order to perceive the aura of another, it is necessary to invest it with
the ability to look back in return.131 The “investment” Thompson made becomes
visible in the gift of the homage paid to Moffatt. The worth of an act of homage is
measured by the particular resonance one artist feels towards another. Yet
homage in art has worth outside of that frame. Homage has several positive
outcomes: the reputation of both artists is consolidated, it exemplifies artists
building on work of their predecessors, and it creates solidarity and community.
129 “Homage” in Oxford English Dictionary, v. second edition, (Oxford University press, 1989) http://dictionary.oed.com.ezproxy1.library.usyd.edu.au/cgi/entry/50107329 130 Leach, 87. Leach quoted Derrida, as quoted in Melberg, 5. 131 Leach, 26-27.
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Figure 5, Christian Thompson, The Gates of Tambo Andy Warhol, 2004
Christian Thompson pays homage to both Andy Warhol and his Aboriginal
heritage in The Gates of Tambo Andy Warhol, 2004. The Gates of Tambo is in
the same series in which Thompson pays homage to Moffatt, Rusty Peters and
himself. For Thompson the homage he pays to individual artists such as Andy
Warhol is as important as highlighting his Aboriginal heritage and integrating
that content into his photography, which is now part of the international art
world. Thompson is from Bidjara country in Queensland. As described by
Riphagen:
The Gates of Tambo are two bottle trees planted outside the tiny town of Tambo by the artistʼs great uncle, marking the old highway between Barcaldine and Brisbane.132
The Gates of Tambo series marks Thompsonʼs connection to his Aboriginal
identity while extending it to the international art world. Homage in Thompsonʼs
photography is a circular process. He merges his Aboriginal heritage with his
132 Riphagen, 339.
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artistic aspirations and then performs the masquerade through mimicking
Warhol, Moffatt, and Peters. The culmination of the circle happens when
Thompson reflects Aboriginal and Australian culture in his photographic homage
to the world in The Gates of Tambo Andy Warhol, Fig. 5.
Thompsonʼs challenge to “enable non-indigenous Australians to visually engage
with an Indigenous person” also allows Aboriginal communities to engage with
Andy Warhol, through Thompsonʼs intervention, as seen in Fig. 5.133 Likewise
the connection Thompson makes between Aboriginal art and the international
art world benefits contemporary culture at large. The masquerade of Warhol,
performed by Thompson, allows him to physically play in both the Aboriginal
and international art worlds.
Love
Paying homage in a work of art is an act of love. The Bulgarian/French
philosopher and psychoanalyst Julia Kristeva discusses the role of love in art in
her statement:
The experience of love and the experience of art, which serve to solidify the identificatory process, are the only ways in which we can maintain our psychic space as a living system that is open to the other and capable of adaptation and change.134
As seen in Thompsonʼs series The Gates of Tambo, homage is a process that
explicates Thompsonʼs identity through self-identifications with other artists.
Thompsonʼs representations of love are his mimicked performances of the
133 ibid. 134 Julia Kristeva, as quoted in Leach, 212-213. Leach quoted Julia Kristeva, New Maladies of the Soul (New York: Colombia University Press, 1995), 175.
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artists he admires. Correspondingly, the admiration he imbues extends to his
family, country, Aboriginal and Australian culture, Andy Warhol, Tracey Moffatt,
and Rusty Peters. Thompson receives the visual support from the artists he
pays homage to and expresses gratitude for the gifts he has received, through
mimicry, and the creation of his own works.
Although Thompson and I both pay homage to Warhol we do so from different
perspectives. In Gates of Tambo Andy Warhol, Thompson employs his
ancestral heritage in his self-portraiture, whereas in Transcendental Andy I
engage with cultural icons I resonate with rather than refer to my ancestral
lineage. Therefore it is our photographed performances that are acts of homage
which unite us. Transcendental Andy, Fig. 6, was originally a video titled
Shadow Andy from the Warhol Reincarnated series. This video is unique in that
it is the first video where I inhabited the space of Warholʼs works.
Fig. 6 is a combination of one of Warholʼs self-portraits with his hand on his
mouth contemplating and looking at the viewer, directly merged with one of his
self-portraits with his face and facial shadow, shown in Fig. 7 and Fig. 8.
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Figure 7, Andy Warhol, Self-Portrait, 1978. Figure 8, Andy Warhol, Self-Portrait, 1981. In Transcendental Andy I mimic Warhol by wearing a silver tinsel wig and a
black denim jacket. Also I duplicate his infamous gesture of contemplation by
putting my hand on my mouth and looking both at and beyond the viewer.
Whereas in Fig. 5 Thompson does not mimic Warholʼs art, instead he
masquerades in black glam-rock clothing, wears a white Warholian wig and
spits water out of his mouth, which conjures up Warholʼs defiance to
conventional art making during the 1960s.
Transcendental Andy, Fig. 6, is comprised of two photographic mirror objects
and one video projection. The two photographs are hung one on top of the other
and to the left of the large-scale video projection. In the photograph on top I
wear a dazed expression and look beyond the viewer. In the bottom photograph
I look directly at the viewer. Unlike my gaze at and beyond viewers, Thompson
looks down and away from viewers, which infers a defiance of the conventions
of gender, sexuality, and Aboriginality. The mirrors in Transcendental Andy
allow the viewer to experience their own reflection.
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The moment of seeing yourself in the mirror in Transcendental Andy alludes to
the Lacanian mirror stage. When viewers see themselves reflected in the mirrors
a moment of self-recognition occurs. The large-scale video projection also
allows viewers to be inside Transcendental Andy and inhabit my art the way I
inhabited Warholʼs. The video is six minutes and thirty seconds in duration and
looped. The footage is slowed down and depicts me as Warhol turning my head
side to side while looking at and then away from the viewer.
The French film theorist Jean Epstein theorised the filmic power upon the
spectator of what he called “photogenie”, a force present in the relationship
between the apparatus, the spectator, and the external world.135 Epstein stated:
I know of nothing more utterly moving than a face giving birth to an expression in slow motion.136
Transcendental Andy completely refers back into itself while exemplifying
“photogenie” through the use of the video camera and digital software. The
two photographs are a second of captured footage. This multiplies one video
and acts as a metaphor for the multiplied self.
135 Wegenstein, 231. 136 Epstein, as quoted ibid.
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Figure 9, Andy Warhol, Beuys, 1984
In Transcendental Andy homage acts “as a living system that is open to the
other and capable of adaptation and change”.137 Warhol pays homage to
Joseph Beuys in Beuys, 1984, Fig. 9. Warhol was prolific, creating many
portraits and self-portraits throughout his extensive career. Nonetheless, rarely
did he pay homage in his art. The silkscreen of Beuys is unique, since Warhol
uses flocking, which looks like felt. Felt was a fundamental material in Beuysʼ
sculpture, installations, performances and videos. Although Warhol
experimented with many materials including diamond dust, the flocking was a
new material and specific to his homage to Beuys. By using it Warhol expresses
his admiration for him.
137 Kristeva, as quoted in Leach, 212-213.
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In Warholʼs homage he doesnʼt mimic or perform as Beuys, which is unique in
this chapter, since Thompson and I perform photographic self-portraits while
masquerading as other artists. Instead, he mimics a defining material for Beuys
– felt. Warhol is open to the other artist, Beuys, and takes him into his art by
way of the felt. Felt was a very personal material for Beuys, a material through
which he exhibited his personality and values.
Warholʼs homage to Beuys was, according to Kristeva:
In the ideal hypothesis, the artist succeeds in probabilising, in relativising, his own production, as though it were a living system that lives only on condition of being open to the other. A life, a work of art: …which are, without distinction, the flames of language and love?138
When Warhol opened his art to another (Beuys) he performed an act of homage
and according to Kristeva, an act of love. Similarly, Thompsonʼs homages to
Moffatt and Warhol can also be seen as acts of love. The emphasis in an act of
homage is on “being open to the other”.139 However being open to the other is a
process, as Leach states, “One can love the other, only if one first loves the
self”.140
This kind of love that opens self to another is, as Kristeva would define it,
agape, which is a feeling/experience of universal connectedness. Agape is a
higher form of love than Eros, as it, according to Kristeva, enacts a union with a
universal force rather than being localized to the individual. It is beyond
138 Julia Kristeva, as quoted in Leach, 212. In discussion about Kristevaʼs notion of love, Leach quoted James Lechte, Julia Kristeva, (London: Routledge, 1990), 215. 139 ibid. 140 Leach, 212.
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personal desire since it involves an openness and identification with the
other.141
The imaginal world Leach spoke of earlier in this chapter is evident in my
installation Transcendental Andy. The term ʻtranscendentalʼ in the title was
partly influenced by the French philosopher Maurice Merleau-Ponty. In The
Phenomenology of Perception Merleau-Ponty states “The internal self and
external became a transcendental field of oneness”.142
Transcendental Andy is meant to illuminate the transcendental and ideational
nature of my self-identification with Andy Warhol. This self-identification I
performed as Warhol is reliant on my mimicking him. I do not impersonate, or
copy him in the Platonic sense. Instead I merely reference him. The non-
disguise of referencing Warhol never hides my identity. The homage I pay to
Warhol is ideational in the sense of how I came to experience him in an intimate
way:
At 23 I sat alone in my Brooklyn studio on the hard wood floors with my knees pressed into my chest and my arms around them looking forward, as if I were waiting for an unknown experience. I was grieving over my brother, Johnʼs, death when I felt Andy Warholʼs presence flow into me. The phantom Warhol filled the space of loss inside of me, both the loss and the additional presence existed simultaneously. Two walls of my studio were made of glass and were as transparent as I felt myself to be when Warholʼs presence saturated me. The memory I have of myself, during the moments Warhol came to me in my studio, was that of
141 Lechte , as quoted in Leach, 212. 142 Merleau-Ponty, 74.
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oneness. The internal self and external became a transcendental field of oneness.143
The universal connectedness that Kristeva spoke of is expressed above in this
story about the loss of my brother, in particular when I say: “the memory I have
of myself, during the moments Warhol came to me in my studio, was that of
oneness”. Paying homage gave me a framework to illustrate the oneness I felt
with myself, my studio, and Warhol. Ultimately, I was able to transcend the loss
I felt for my brother John. This universal connection exemplifies the experience
of not needing to physically have someone there to connect with them. The
power of art and creativity can connect us. I chose to accept the presence of
Andy Warhol as an influence, to transcend my feeling of loss.
Additional insight into being open to the other is expressed by Lechte, when he
states:
To refuse difference here, to be closed off to the dynamic aspect of identity, is also to begin to die – certainly in a symbolic sense, and probably in a physical sense as well. Without God…the speaking being in postmodern times risks becoming a stunted version of humanity. Love…can compensate for God, and so can art, in Kristevaʼs view.144
Face
In Transcendental Andy the focus on my face masquerading as Warhol
expresses the fullness of life, instead of the loss I experienced. Like the
ephemeral haze of transcendence, the persona of Warhol I take on acts as a
143 Kim Connerton, artistʼs statement in Thesis [exhibition catalogue], eds. Adrian McDonald and Nerida Olsen (Sydney: Sydney College of the Arts, 2009), 12-13. 144 Lechte, as quoted in Leach, 213.
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transparent screen over my face. The American film and media historian,
Bernadette Wegenstein, writes about the significance of the face:
The human face is the screen of the body, the place of encounter between individuals… Behind faces we see the person. We address people by facing them. This is also why the facial skin has been interpreted all along as a mirror to the soul: it reflects the state of mind, the degree of well-being of the person behind a face.145
In Transcendental Andy the face is the primary focus precisely because “behind
faces we see the person” and “we address people by facing them” and the face
is the “mirror to the soul” and “reflects the state of mind” that I use my own face
and allow it show through. Ultimately, the effect Warhol has had on my life is
invisible and lives in my internal world but in my art I can expose this and try to
explore this invisibility. In this sense I use the face as a “mirror to the soul”
because I am attempting to speak the unspeakable, that is, my private
repository of memories and past experiences.
I mimic a contemplative gesture that Warhol used in his self-portraits, Fig. 13
and Fig. 14, when he put his fingers on his mouth, while gazing directly at the
viewer. I also mimic the look of Warholʼs art in Transcendental Andy, as
Thompson mimics the look of Moffattʼs art in Gates of Tambo Tracey Moffatt.
In conclusion, the self-portraits and portraits by Christian Thompson, Andy
Warhol and myself elucidate mimesis and its significant role in contemporary
self-portraiture and in representations of self-discovery. In particular, artistsʼ
repeated efforts to represent the self in different appearances has provided
145 Wegenstein, 231-232.
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unique and progressive imagery that facilitates change and more openness to
the other. Thompson, Moffatt, and I extend the contemporary construction of
subjectivity by mimicking the celebrated other. We perform both as ourselves
and the other and transform ourselves through these cultural identifications.
These works attempt to provide new representations of self with a wider
definition of what self can be.
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Chapter 3: Narcissism
His eyes are deceived, but the strange illusion excites his senses.
Ovid146
Narcissism is a widely used term and often infers the malady of self-absorption.
However in this chapter the concept of narcissism will illustrate the positive and
culturally relevant acts of self-discovery and transformation that are reflected in
photographed self-representations. This positive view of narcissism is supported
by architect and theorist Neil Leachʼs book Camouflage, which is a key text in
this chapter.
In contemporary culture narcissism is viewed as a negative force. The immature
behaviour that does not lead to self-discovery and human development is
observed by American historian Christopher Lasch in the Culture of Narcissism:
We live in a swirl of images and echoes that arrest the experience and play it back in slow motion. Cameras and recording machines not only transcribe experience, but alter its quality, giving to much of modern life the character of an enormous chamber, a hall of mirrors.147
The concept of narcissism encompasses self-recognition and metamorphosis
and is emblematic of growth, change, adaptation, and transition. Examining
narcissism in a contemporary context will illuminate the self/images discussed
thus far. The conversation of narcissism is significant in the dynamic where
artists repeatedly appear and perform in their photographs and videos. The self-
portraits of American artist Francesca Woodman are discussed throughout this
146 Ovid, Metamorphoses, trans. by David Raeburn, (London: Penguin Books, 2004), 113. 147 Lasch, as quoted in Leach, 128-129. For Lasch this is a form of secondary or pathological narcissism, and he is careful to distinguish it from primary narcissism.
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chapter, as she repeatedly uses her body in her photographs. Her photography
alters and reflects the narcissistic gaze in contemporary culture.
The “hall of mirrors” that Lasch defines as empty and shallow can also be seen
as the infinite possibilities of self, to be discovered and represented to the world.
In his book Camouflage, Neil Leach defines narcissism as a continual process
of broadening oneʼs horizons and opening up to the other – of identifying with
the non-identical.148 Neil Leachʼs observations in Camouflage will be used to
support a life affirming narcissism in this chapter.
The Narcissus myth took shape in the epic poem Metamorphosis by the Roman
poet Ovid. In Camouflage, Leach retells it:
As Narcissus leans out over a pool for a drink following a hard dayʼs hunting, he is captivated by his own image, mistaking the reflection for reality itself. “While he sought to quench his thirst,” writes Ovid, “another thirst grew in him, and as he drank, he was enchanted by the beautiful reflection that he saw. He fell in love with an insubstantial hope, mistaking a mere shadow of a real body. Spellbound by his own self, he remained there motionless, with fixed gaze, like a statue carved of Parian marble.” He tries in vain to reach out and grasp the image, which also appears to reach out for him, but eventually, lying there without food or sleep, he wastes away in his own self-love, and dies. When they come to bury him, they discover that his body is nowhere to be seen, but that a flower with white petals and a yellow centre has blossomed. To this day this flower still bears his name, Narcissus.149
In this myth Narcissus represents the self from antiquity and his muddled
attempt to reflect on himself. Narcissus looked at himself and saw a part of
himself that was new and not yet known to him. It was the seed of his
transformation. The Narcissus flower is the metaphoric symbol of the character
148 Leach, 130. 149 Leach, 119. Leach quoted and retold Ovid, Metamorphosis, trans. Mary Innes (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1955), 84.
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Narcissusʼ transformation and re-birth. The self-reflection and transformation
that Ovid writes about is fundamental to human development and continues to
be relevant to contemporary culture. The representations of self-discovery by
artists such as Francesca Woodman and Claude Cahun mimic the status of
contemporary self-identity so that culture and the self can be examined in their
reflections.
When contemporary artists repeatedly use reflections of themselves in their
self-portraits the self is defined as incomplete and as fragmented as Narcissusʼ
image in the pool. The self is incomplete in the sense that its entirety cannot be
completely captured in only one image. Knowing the self is an ongoing process
– there will always be more to discover. When Narcissus “tries in vain to reach
out and grasp the image” the desire to recognise the selfʼs transience is
foregrounded. In contemporary culture there are millions of lakes to kneel down
in front of and see oneʼs self in. In global capitalist mass media culture there are
endless different mediated images of ourselves reflected back to us.
The French philosopher Maurice Blanchot probed the nature of the image when
he wrote:
But what is the image?...The image speaks to us, and seems to speak intimately to us of ourselves…The image fulfils one of its functions, which is to quiet, to humanize formless nothingness pressed upon us by the indelible residue of being. The image cleanses this residue…and allows us to believe, dreaming in the happy dream which art too often authorises, that, separated from the real and immediately behind it, we find, as pure pleasure and superb satisfaction, the transparent eternity of the unreal.150
150 Maurice Blanchot, as quoted in Jones, Self/Image, 254-255. Jones quoted Maurice Blanchot, “The Two Versions of the Imaginary,” The Space of Literature, trans. Ann Smock (Lincoln, NE, and London: University of Nebraska Press, 1982).
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When contemporary artists depict the act of self-reflection the significance of
this form of human development is highlighted. These reflections are significant
because “the image speaks to us, and seems to speak intimately to us of
ourselves”. The human “formless nothingness” embodies the parts of the self
yet to be known to itself. The fragmented self is like a “dream” that already
exists in the recesses of the mind, but its various fragments have yet to emerge
to the surface.
The surface is a place of revelation. In the case of Francesca Woodmanʼs or
Andy Warholʼs artworks the surface of their photographs, silk-screens and
paintings are the exciting moments that bubbled out of their own perceptions
and onto the surface of their cultural and self representations. The images that
represent self-transformation infer the “pure pleasure” of having an entity (self)
that is ever-changing and will continually provide a wealth of material to get to
know (process).
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Figure 1, Francesca Woodman, Self-Deceit #1, 1977-1978
Part l: Self-Recognition
Francesca Woodmanʼs photography
The work of American photographer Francesca Woodman, 1958-1981, depicts a
narcissism engaged with self-recognition and metamorphosis. Self is
represented by Woodmanʼs body in her photography. Woodman replaces
Narcissus looking:
spellbound by her own self, she remained there motionless, with fixed gaze, like a statue carved of Parian marble.” She tries in vain to reach out and grasp the image, which also appears to reach out for her.151
Woodman is “spellbound” as her stare is frozen in the photograph Self Deceit
#1, Fig. 1. In her photography she is often depicted in the state of possibly
disappearing. In Fig. 1, she could stare into the mirror for infinity or she could
151 Leach, 119. Leach quoted and retold Ovid, Metamorphosis, 1955, 84.
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recede back around the corner. Half of her body is already hidden and around
that corner. The mirror in perspective is largest towards the viewer. It comes
closer to the front of the photograph than Woodman does. There is a ghost in
this image and this ghost is Woodman. She committed suicide at the age of 22,
however her photography continues to have a significant and historical impact.
She disappeared, yet returns repeatedly in contemporary art. Although
Woodmanʼs work was made thirty years ago her performative photography and
explorations of identity and representation are relevant in the contemporary
dialogue.
Moving beyond the archaism of Freudʼs (and Lacanʼs) Narcissism
When Woodman depicts herself looking in the mirror and staring at her reflection
in Fig. 1, viewers see a moment of self-inquiry reflected for them. Unlike
Woodman, when Narcissus misunderstands his own image for another, “his
eyes are deceived”. Ovid defines a visual misunderstanding and Woodman
infers a more complex psychological process.
Contemporary art criticism uses psychological language to describe Woodmanʼs
photography. In particular, this stems from the theories of narcissism that Lacan
developed, based on the writings of Freud.
The art historian Whitney Chadwick examines narcissism in her book Mirror
Images: Women, Surrealism, and Self-Representation:
Even before 1936, when psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan first presented his paper arguing for the origins of selfhood in a “mirror stage” (the
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“misrecognition” of another in the mirror that produces the self, or subject), theories of subjectivity and sexual identity had revolved around seeing. Lacanʼs theory of subjectivity, which derives from Freudʼs concepts of narcissism and the “specular” ego (the formation of the subject around a dynamic of seeing/not-seeing that initiates the castration anxiety around which male sexuality is formed) left Women in the position of signifier for the male other, her subjectivity (or “femininity”) determined by the discourse of patriarchy.152
The psychological language of signifier and signified has assisted contemporary
art historians such as Rosalind Krauss, Amelia Jones, Hal Foster, Craig Owens
and Chadwick herself to define identity and selfhood in art as determined by the
patriarchy, and deconstruct it. This framework is crucial to this dissertation,
however it also has its limitations. The main limitation that Chadwick highlights
in Mirror Women, Surrealism, and Images Self-Representation is that:
(the formation of the subject around a dynamic of seeing/not-seeing that initiates the castration anxiety around which male sexuality is formed) left Women in the position of signifier for the male other, her subjectivity (or “femininity”) determined by the discourse of patriarchy.153
The result of womenʼs “subjectivity…being determined by the discourse of
patriarchy” is that, as explained by Belgian philosopher Luce Irigaray in her
article Womenʼs Exile:
The masculine can partly look at itself, speculate about itself, represent itself and describe itself for what it is, whilst the feminine can try to speak to itself to a new language, but cannot describe itself from outside or in formal terms, except by identifying itself with the masculine, thus by losing itself.154
The monumental point that the “feminine cannot describe itself from the outside
or in formal terms” addresses the limitation of the Lacanian and Freudian
theories of subjectivity, as being rendered ineffective to properly identify 152 Chadwick, ed., 8. 153 ibid. 154 Luce Irigaray, as quoted in Chadwick, ed., 62-76. Quoted from Luce Irigaray, “Women's Exile", trans. Couze Venn, Ideology and Consciousness 1 (1977): 62-76.
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subjectivity for women artistsʼ self/imagings. For a woman to identify with “the
masculine”, according to Irigaray, she loses herself and instead needs a “new
language”. In the case of Woodman an important distinction to make with
Irigaray in mind is that her art is about loss but also the fleeting possibilities of
self. Woodmanʼs body is repeatedly represented leaning into the space she is in,
inferring a discovery of some kind.
The Oedipus complex, which sees women operating at a loss in a phallocentric
structure, is a core idea behind the psychological language used in art criticism.
As introduced in Chapter 1, Part 2, the criticism of the Oedipus complex,
expressed by Irigaray and Chadwick, is evident in Anti-Oedipus by Deleuze and
Guattari. Deleuze and Guattari abandon the Oedipus complex because it is built
on the notion of loss (of the mother) and a negative idea of difference.155
Interestingly enough, Deleuze and Guattari both had professional relationships
with Lacan. Their criticism did not completely dismiss Lacan, but suggested that
he would eventually conclude that the Oedipus Complex was a “despotic Great
Signifier acting as an archaism”. As Irigaray suggested earlier in this chapter a
new language is needed to discuss female subjectivity. This language includes
the positive definition of narcissism discussed further in this chapter.
In this dissertation the elucidation of the work by artists such as Woodman,
Cahun, Sherman, Warhol, Thompson and myself exhibits a contemporary and
155 Deleuze and Guattari, Anti-Œdipus, 1972 and Capitalism and Schizophrenia, vol. 1, 1972-1980.
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positive style of analysis rather than one that pre-supposes that the self begins
its life operating at a loss. The position that Deleuze and Guattari take in regard
to Lacan illustrates that “Oedipus is imaginary, nothing but an image, a myth”
and that “these images are produced by an oedipalising structure” (capitalism)
that “reproduces the element of castration”.156
Figure 2, Francesca Woodman, Self-Deceit #6, 1977-1978
A more positive definition of narcissism
Narcissism, as defined by Leach, is creative, about metamorphosis, and
regards identification as a “continual process of broadening oneʼs horizons and
156 Deleuze and Guattari, as quoted in Mark Caldwell, “Schizophrenizing Lacan: Deleuze, [Guattari], and Anti-Oedipus,” intersections 10, no. 3 (2009): 18-27, http://depts.washington.edu/chid/intersections_Autumn_2009/Text_Image_&_Discourse/index.htm, (accessed March 8, 2009).
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opening up to the other – of identifying with the nonidentical”.157 That other
includes the self, as it did for Narcissus. The other he saw was other from what
he knew to be himself.
The nonidentical other that Woodman identifies with in Self-Deceit #6, Fig. 2, is
the environment she is surrounded by. The pushing into mirrors that Woodman
does in her photographs in Fig. 1 and Fig. 2 suggests pushing herself into her
own world in the studio to examine her own gaze towards herself. It is as if she
pushes herself free from the oedipalising structures in the world she created.
The American art critic, David Levy Strauss, discusses her work:
In Francesca Woodmanʼs work we see a young woman making it up (photography) from the beginning, recognizing no authority outside of the frames of her photographs (…). Whereas photographs most often trace the relationship between the one photographing and the one photographed, in Woodmanʼs images that relationship is collapsed.”158
The collapsed relationships between the photographer and the one
photographed assisted Woodmanʼs slide through these roles to be the director
in her studio.159 Woodman is the only authority inside the literal and
metaphorical walls in her photography. The act of letting the external world go is
both narcissistic and instrumental in her art. The photographs are evidence of
her going into an internal space not unlike the nirvana of the womb. The mood
in Woodmanʼs photography is certainly not bliss but does embody a “lapidary
beauty and elegance” that “serves to function as a kind of lure”.160 Woodmanʼs
studio and the environments depicted in her photographs resemble a
157 Leach, 130. 158 David Levi Strauss, as quoted in Isabel Tejeda, ed., Francesca Woodman (Murcia: Espacio AV, 2009), 18. 159 ibid. 160 Margaret Sundell, “Francesca Woodman: The Elusive Self” in Chadwick, ed., 169.
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postindustrial womb. She represents herself immersed in these decaying
worlds. Leach states:
The narcissistic gratification the self reflected back in this stimulating engagement with the environment re-creates the sensuous oneness of the womb, the “integral gratification” of the womb.161
The “stimulating engagement with the environment” that “re-creates the
sensuous oneness of the womb” is reflected in Woodmanʼs Self-Deceit series.
Self-Deceit, Fig. 1, depicts her body and her reflection in the mirror. The other
reflected back is her in the mirror. The mirror and the camera signify the
audience are in this space with her, through representation.
Woodman uses Self-Deceit #6, Fig. 2, as a way to simultaneously hide and
expose self. This image is absurdly funny in its melancholy because Woodman
is pushing into the mirror and hiding part of her naked body behind it.
Woodmanʼs hiding is meant to be seen and to reveal her integration into the
space. Again the mirror is closer to the viewer than Woodman. Instead of seeing
her face the viewer sees a mirror that could possibly reflect them but it doesnʼt
because it is a photograph of a person hiding her face behind a mirror. Ironically
Woodman cannot see her face either because the mirror is turned away from
her and towards the viewer. The act of seeing for Woodman is cancelled out
and she does not confront the viewer with her gaze.
The revolution or state of being Woodman represents is a tragic comedy of hide
and seek. In Fig. 2 Woodman uses three elements to build the image: the
161 Leach, 121.
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decayed corner she leans her body against, the mirror, and her body. The
repeated use of her mostly naked body, and her often hidden face, expresses a
raging desire to be seen, and not be seen to see, and to not see. The poses that
Woodman stands in push her body into the mirror and wall. The fleeting self that
Woodman models can move in and out of the place sheʼs in, whether it be
physical or mental. Her pushing suggests a will to make something happen or to
create a space to be in – even for a fleeting moment. Until the next photograph
pushes into the next space.
Woodmanʼs complex emotional range of sadness, fear, melancholy, and
passion is defined by the act of disappearing and pushing into mirrors, wallpaper
and furniture. The image represented in Self Deceit #6, Fig. 2, is a catharsis of
sorts. All the surfaces – the walls, Woodmanʼs body, and the shiny mirror –
represent the bringing to the surface of what Woodman reveals to viewers.
The activity of repeatedly photographing oneself is easily described as
narcissistic. When a friend of Woodmanʼs, Sloan Rankin, asked her why she
took so many pictures of herself Woodman replied: “Itʼs a matter of convenience,
I am always available”.162 This statement of “always” being “available” is ironic
and expresses a deeper truth, according to Italian art critic, Marco Pierini:
The constant availability of self as artistic subject…means the inexhaustible capacity to extract from the self—and from the self only—every reason, every necessity, every pretext presupposing, informing and defining oneʼs actions. The communion of Francescaʼs body with the
162 Sloan Rankin, as quoted in Tejeda, ed., 19. Quoted from Sloan Rankin, “Peach Mumble – Ideas Cookin,” in Francesca Woodman [exhibition catalogue], Foundation Cartier pour lʼart contemporain-Scalo, (Paris-Zurich_Berlin_New York 1998), 35.
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objects, the clothes, the plaster on the walls, the doors and the window is a corollary inevitably stemming from the previous axiom.163
This “inexhaustible capacity to extract for the self” is evident in Woodmanʼs
work. The repeated act of using herself in her photographs is also a driving
force that imbues the work with the relentless passion to perform the pose of
leaning against walls and mirrors to become one with her self and her
surroundings inside the photographs. Maurice Merleau-Ponty states:
Visible and mobile, my body is countable amongst things, it is one of them, it is woven in the fabric of the world and its cohesion is that of a thing. But as it sees and it moves and keeps things in a circle around itself, things are annexed to it or prolong it, embedded in its flesh, are part of its full definition, and the world is made of the same fabric as the body.164
A body that is “visible and mobile”, according to Merleau-Pontyʼs theories,
defines the space around Woodman in her photographs where she becomes
one with the “fabric” of that world. Consequently, the things the (other) “prolong”
and “annex” the definition of self by becoming one with her. Two worlds – a
body and a space – are woven together like fabric in Woodmanʼs
photography.165
163 Marco Pierini, “From the inside. Notes from Francesca Woodmanʼs Artistic Route,” in Tejeda, ed., 19. 164 Maurice Merleau-Ponty as quoted by Pierini, ibid. Marco Pierini quoted Lʼoeil et LʼEspirit, Italian edition Lʼocchio e lo spirito, SE, (Milano: 1989). 165 ibid.
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Part 2: Metamorphosis
The Mirror and Francesca Woodmanʼs Photography
Figure 3, Francesca Woodman, In the Mirror, 1975-78
The mirror is an object that recurs in Woodmanʼs photography. In In the Mirror,
Fig. 3, Woodman lands in one fell swoop on a large mirror and presses her
body weight into it. She lies on top of her own mirror image and looks at her
reflected face, a face looking back at itself that we cannot see. The consistent
features in Woodmanʼs work appear once again: the face we cannot see, her
body, the mirror, the gesture of pressing into an object, and the raw studio
space that suspends everyday life concerns.
By pressing into the mirror in Fig. 3, Woodman pushes her body into an illusory
space for us to see. The mirror allows Woodmanʼs self to bounce off of her and
onto the space of the mirrorʼs surface. There is a gestalt in this photograph of
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Woodmanʼs body and the space and objects in it uniting. As Merleau-Ponty
states:
Visible and mobile, my body is countable amongst things, it is one of them and keeps things in a circle around itself.166
This illusion created in In the Mirror is like a dance that is “visible and mobile”
and Woodmanʼs body is what everything “circles around”. By Woodmanʼs
gesture of pushing her body into the mirror, she inserts her image into this circle
of oneness that includes her body, the mirrorʼs surface and the space.
The Spanish art critic Fernando Castro Florez, in his essay about Woodmanʼs
work, “Mirror Floating Down River”, states:
Apulieus167, accused of magic for possessing a mirror, made an effective eulogy, saying that the mirror, for its virtue of capturing images, outdid clay with its lack of energy, marble for its lack of colour, painting for its lack of volume and body, and that it is capable of capturing the movement of the image better than anything else, within its restricted limits: by trapping the movement of objects and persons that pass in front of it, the mirror manages to express in fragments the passing of the years in the life of a man and its changes. But, the fact is that the mirror does not retain anything, its backing with quicksilver rejects all memory and the only thing that remains is the longing of he who contemplates his reflection in it…Francesca Woodmanʼs obsession with the mirror has a lot to do with a consciousness of the derealising nature of this reflection.168
The elusive concept of the self-portrait is similar to the slippery concept of the
mirrored self that is present in Woodmanʼs photography. The repeated act of
166 Merleau-Ponty as quoted in Pierini, in Tejeda, ed., 19. 167 Apuleius (c. AD 125–after 170) North African Roman poet, philosopher, and rhetorician, whose best‐known work, the comic novel Metamorphoses or The Golden Ass, is the only complete work of Latin prose fiction to survive. Its interwoven stories became a quarry and model for the Italian and French novella: Boccaccio borrowed three, and others appeared in the 15th‐century Cent Nouvelles. The much‐reprinted complete translation of 1566 by William Adlington, The Golden Asse, was known to William Shakespeare. Cupid and Psyche is the most frequently retold of Apuleius' stories. See Robert H. F. Carver, The Protean Ass: The ʻMetamorphosesʼ of Apuleius from Antiquity to the Renaissance (2007). "Apuleius," The Oxford Companion to English Literature, ed. Dinah Birch, Oxford Reference Online. Oxford University Press. http://www.oxfordreference.com.ezproxy2.library.usyd.edu.au/views/ENTRY.html?subview=Main&entry=t113.e303, (accessed 1 December 2009). 168 Fernando Castro Florez, “Mirror Floating Down River,” in Tejeda, ed., 156.
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capturing reflections of herself represents the mutability of self. The mirror, like
the photograph, captures an increment of the experience of the self. Once the
subject is outside of the mirrorʼs surface or the cameraʼs lens it has moved on.
The mirror doesnʼt “retain” or record as the camera does.
The act of looking at herself that Woodman performs repeatedly is mirrored
back to viewers in her photographs. This method of examining self – looking
into a mirror and taking photographs of this act – captures moments in time and
infers the primary mirror stage. Woodman mimics the naïve mind, awakened by
the surprise of self-recognition through the act of seeing herself in the mirror.
Woodman repeats this to expose that surprising moment. Viewers can
experience a moment frozen, extending a sense of totality to the moment
represented.
The mirrorʼs value in Woodmanʼs work is that it is the object that assists in the
act of self-discovery. Yet it is an object that can never hold an image: the
moments of self-discovery are always fleeting or lost.
Captured disappearance
Woodmanʼs efforts made to “derealise” her mirrored reflections rely on the
mirrorʼs inability to retain images. Yet the camera is another mirror, with the
magical capacity to capture images. The mirrorʼs lack of memory allows
Woodman to infer the act of disappearing repeatedly. In Fig. 1, if Woodman
reversed slightly she would not be visible in the photograph or in her mirror
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reflection. In Fig. 2, Woodman pushes her body out of a corner and into a
mirror, which she hides her face behind. The blank mirror reflection becomes
the front surface of Woodmanʼs body. Lastly, in Fig. 3, Woodman covers her
reflection with her body while looking at her face. In these three photographs
only the back of Woodmanʼs body can be seen. Her poses are crawls, pushes,
and a kneeling lunge.
The gestures that Woodman repeats in her self-portraits symbolise self-
transformation. She can push into and push out of realities. The everyday reality
is pushed away in her studio where her photographs were staged and taken.
Woodmanʼs gesture of pushing into objects and space is unusual and
deliberate. It is not a gesture like the Warholian contemplation gesture that I
mimic in my art, which is often utilised by people. Instead it is idiosyncratic and
unique to her photography.
Woodman danced around her studio, pushing into the imaginal world of
childhood, to subvert the patriarchal gaze at women and construct her own.
Although anxiety and melancholy are evident in her photographs, so is a
childlike state of openness that is a “controlled regression”.169 As American art
historian Laurie Schneider Adams states:
The artist must be able to “regress” to early instinctual impulses in such a way that they are controlled and formed by the ego. This controlled regression is somewhat akin to the technique of method actors, who call on experiences from their own past as source material for emotions required for a particular role. In 1957, Phyllis Greenacre referred to this as “access to childhood.” All such descriptions of creativity assume the
169 Leach, 30.
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artistʼs internal psychic flexibility, which permits identification with and portrayal of a wide range of characters and themes. The emphasis on “regression” and childhood “access” derives from the relatively flexible psychic structures and identifications of children as compared to adults.170
The “regression” that Adams defines is akin to the primary mirror stage. In
particular, the childʼs initial moment of surprise and visual recognition.171 It is
this that is highlighted in Leachʼs positive interpretation of narcissism.
Woodmanʼs self-identifications access childhood and display her “internal
psychic flexibility, which permitted identification with and portrayal of a wide
range of characters and themes”.172
Woodman, according to American art critic and philosopher, Arthur Danto,
“always shows herself as the same character – the character of a young woman
in various mise-en scenes”.173 This young female character is the essence of
Woodmanʼs art, as Pierini states:
Model and artist, appear as absolutely inseparable…Francesca Woodmanʼs self-portrait finds its truth precisely in that subjective inner life of the artist that originates the necessity of the work of art. Mingling, blending with things, does not mean hiding behind them; rather fully revealing oneself, dissolving in the light with the aim of reasserting a sense of intimate communion with the world, showing oneself through the reflection of the mirror in order to perfect self-perception (not necessarily simplifying it, as suggested by the title Self-Deceit attributed to a famous Roman series where Francesca interacts with the mirror).174
170 Laurie Schneider Adams, as quoted in Leach, 30. Leach quoted Laurie Schneider Adams, Art and Psychoanalysis (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1994), 8-9. 171 Chadwick, ed., 8. 172 Adams, as quoted in Leach, 30. 173 Arthur C. Danto as quoted in Pierini, in Tejeda, ed., 40. Marco Pierini quoted Arthur C. Danto, “Darkness Visible”, in The Nation, 15 November 2004. 174 Pierini, in Tejeda, ed., 21-22.
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The “sameness” that Danto spoke of is not only that Woodman plays herself.175
She was a young, female photographer who photographed herself in the studio
and that is the role she played. She photographed moments imbued with the
childʼs initial moment of surprise and visual recognition in relation to primary
narcissism.176
Woodmanʼs recurrence in her photographs is a tactic that facilitates the
“intimate communion with the world” that she portrays.177 She is a character that
comes to be known through her photographs. Her nude body reveals an
openness and creates a sense of intimacy between her and the viewer.
Through her physical interactions with space a transformation is enacted: from
being a singular person to a person merged into a relationship with space and
objects. This is where the fabric of the world and the fabric of the body become
one, opening the definition of narcissism, to include the world around us. 178
Narcissism can mean more than the self – self is part of culture and Woodman
represents through her interactions with spaces and objects that the self is part
of the world and the world is part of the self.
175 Danto, as quoted in Pierini, in Tejeda, ed., 21. 176 Chadwick, ed., 8. 177 Pierini in Tejeda, ed., 21-22. 178 ibid.,19.
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Figure 4, Kim Connerton, Mirror Chair 2009, Figure 5, Kim Connerton, Mirror Chair, 2009
Woodman merges with the “fabric of the world” by standing on a mirror and
pressing her body into the wall in Fig. 6.179 In my most recent series Mirror
Chairs Fig. 4 and Fig. 5 the chairs are objects that are in the world yet canʼt be
sat on. Similarly the mirror in Self-Deceit #3, Fig. 6, is not functional either, since
it does not reflect viewersʼ reflections. The mirrors in Woodmanʼs photographs
and in Mirror Chairs support literal or photographic reflections of the artist, while
opening the definition of narcissism to include the world around us. In Mirror
Chairs the mirrors comprise all of the surfaces. They allow viewersʼ reflections to
be on the surface of the chair since the mirrors can absorb their reflections. As
Woodman embodies the wall my representations embody the chair.
179 ibid.
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Woodmanʼs transformations are repeated visions but visions originating from
her inner world. She sourced these moments from her inner life and
transformed and reflected them in front of viewersʼ eyes. The invisible worlds
that Woodman made visible, such as the act of becoming one with the fabric of
the wall, were echoed in silence.180 These transformations are a testament to
“the artistʼs internal psychic flexibility”.181 The sense of self-reflection is a crucial
activity on the path to self-discovery and transformation.
Figure 6, Francesca Woodman, Self-Deceit, 1978 In Mirror Self-Portrait, Fig. 7, I also source moments from my inner life as
Woodman did. To signal a retreat into the selfʼs inner world my eyes are closed.
A close-up of my face nestled in flowers depicts my focus on the interior world,
that merges with the natural world. In Fig. 7 I lean into and touch flowers with my
face and hand. I stop and take a breath in a garden. I include Australian native
flowers for their symbolic potential, to acknowledge in an abstract way an exotic 180 ibid. 181 Laurie Schneider Adams, as quoted in Leach, 30.
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land that has become my home. Unlike Woodman I depict myself interacting
with flowers rather than architectural spaces as she does.
Figure 7, Kim Connerton, Mirror Self-Portrait 3, 2009 Fig. 7 is made of a mirror that sits behind a transparent photograph of me.
Viewers can see themselves reflected on the mirrorʼs surface while the
transparent photograph of me, which is situated on top of the mirror, overlaps
with their image in the mirror. Woodman and I both use mirrors in our
photography to signify self-reflection. In Mirror Self-Portrait I use a mirror to
allow the viewer to be in the work by appearing on the surface of the mirror. The
mirror Woodman uses in Fig. 6 doesnʼt reflect the viewer, instead it signifies a
place for the outside world to come into her studio.
Looking at oneself in the mirror and the act of self-reflection are the basic tools
of narcissism and lead to self-discovery and self-transformation, tasks requiring
an infinite amount of repetition. As Leach has pointed out this is “a continual
process of broadening oneʼs horizons and opening up to the other—of
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identifying with the non-identical.” 182 Listening, to herself and the world, is at the
core of Woodmanʼs reflections in her photography. Ultimately, Woodmanʼs re-
flections “broaden our horizons” because she echoes our horizons for us to
ponder on.183
The acts of reflection Woodman performs “perfected self-perception” through
repetition. Self-discovery is an ongoing process and each time Woodman self-
reflected a different facet was “dissolved in the light with the aim of reasserting a
sense of intimate communion with the world”.184 The accumulation of gestures
and representations exhibits the positive faces of narcissism, as a tool for
meaningful self-reflection and self-knowledge. The play that Woodman portrays
in her photographs illustrates Merleau-Pontyʼs point that “the world and the body
are made of the same fabric” showing that narcissism does not necessarily
exclude the world, but the world is also reflected, alongside the self.
182 Leach, 130. 183 ibid. 184 Pierini in Tejeda, ed., 21-22.
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Conclusion
The feeling of love is an interior experience. The American philosopher,
Alphonso Lingis, examines desire when he states:
…in the beginning, or at the core, at the essence of life, there are excitations. Of themselves they are intensities, moments of potential that accumulate and discharge themselves, moments of feeling both pleasure and unpleasure.185
The feeling of love, as it expounds on the concepts of beauty and desire are
areas I want to extend my research into. The “moments of potentials that
accumulate and discharge themselves” that Lingis refers to are instinctual
and reveal the libidinal drive that I now believe is integral to my work. Lingisʼ
insight extends the research I have done on Deleuze and Guattariʼs notions of
difference as a positive experience and becoming, as discussed in Chapter 1,
Part 2. My research on mimesis will be extended and engages with concepts
of erotic mimicry, desire, and beauty. However I will focus in the future,
through my photographic and video practice, on the concept of becoming and
the instinctual drives that originate from the libido.
I anticipate that examining the concepts of desire and beauty and developing
the erotic elements in my photography will expand the current research on
mimicry, homage and narcissism, which have been key concepts in this
dissertation. The role of homage in my self/images has extended my thinking
about identity through the depictions of myself performing as another. I will
continue paying homage in performative and photographic self/images, while
representing distilled gestures and moments where I will perform as celebrated 185 Alphonso Lingis, “Philosophical Interpretation of the Libido,” Substance Vol.8, No.4, Issue 25 (1979): 88.
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artists such as Eva Hesse, Francesca Woodman, Marguerite Duras and Simone
de Beauvoir. I have chosen these artists and writers because they have had a
longstanding impact on my intellectual and artistic aspirations.
Each of the above artists depicts various acts of mimicry, while also exploring
sexuality in various ways, which extends my examination of mimesis to become
a fictionalised element that will begin to explore erotic gestures. I will reconstruct
memories I have of each artistʼs work. Recreating memories employs a
subjectivity that is environmental. The memories I have of the artists will
facilitate the production of environments that will investigate the viewer in the
space, which shifts the focus from the individual face-to-face relationship in my
existing studio work. The overlapping faces in my photographic representations
with the viewersʼ mirror reflections, as depicted in Mirror Self-Portraits,
YokoPeace and Transcendental Andy, will be extended by becoming
overlapping bodies reflected in the space on the walls and in the video
projections. Through Hesseʼs sculpture, Woodmanʼs photography, and Duras
and de Beauvoirʼs literature, their work and vivid imagery has become a part of
my memory. For example I think of Hesse as a young women, standing behind
a sheet of plastic, surrounded by her rope sculptures; of Woodman running and
blurred in her decaying studio while her nude body disappears; of how Duras
described herself as a teenage girl waiting along the Mekong river with a
threadbare silk dress and silver lamé shoes; and about a character in de
Beauvoirʼs fiction drinking absinthe during a lunch with her husband.
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The video projection I propose to make will mimic the desires I perceive in my
memories of unforgettable imagery by the celebrated artists discussed above.
The memories will be distorted and changed to represent the most sensual
images to emphasise feelings of desire rather than depict a narrative. The
looped video projections will mimic the fleeting yet continuous nature of desire.
The video will exemplify this by illustrating brief scenes of human desire based
on my memories. Once a desire is fulfilled more desires demand to be fulfilled.
In his essay “Philosophy and Phenomenological Research” Lingis states:
If sensation is the original subjectivity, it is because there is effected in it our original subjection to beings. The Visible and the Invisible conceptualised this by speaking of the sensitive being as the locus where there is a folding back of the world upon itself. This inscription of the world upon the subject is the very carnality of existence, the structure of flesh. Merleau-Ponty always sought to explicate it by looking at the overlapping of the visible and motor; the look that palpates the visible has already been imprinted with the pacing speed, and direction of its movement by the things it will see. That is only possible because it is itself something visible, and it is its own visible being that extends outward in the field of movement, or the visible being of the field of movement that extends inward. In fact this continuity is realised by the movement and by this imprinting.186
In this new work the viewer will be conceived as the “sensitive being” and the
“locus.” The role of homage will represent the self, which is extended by
fleeting sensual experiences that become a visual field viewers can be
immersed in. This field is similar to Merleau-Pontyʼs theory that the body is
extended by its interaction with the material world as discussed in Chapter 3.
My memories are the imprints of desire in this field, represented by the video
projections and photographs. The core investigation of subjectivity will be the
186 Lingis, “Philosophy and Phenomenological Research”, 168.
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fleeting sensations a self has, rather than the relationships between the self
and other.
A difference from the previous homages I have discussed in this dissertation is
that I will not alter my appearance by wearing wigs or costumes. Additionally the
artist I am paying homage to will not necessarily be discernible in the
photographs or videos. The focus in the new work will be to explore myself in
environments and spaces rather than as a persona of a celebrated artist. I can
expand my photographs and videos to become more a part of the world by
replicating sensual experiences based on my memories of the creative works by
the artists I have chosen to pay homage to, since the video endeavors to be
large-scale and immersive.
One of the work in the photographic and video series that continues this
dissertationʼs engagement with homage will express my reverence to Marguerite
Duras by reinterpreting a scene based on her book North China Lover. The
homage to Duras I am planning is immersive and abstract and will explore the
concepts of erotic mimicry, beauty and desire. The reference to Duras will be
indirect, as it will emulate a scene from her book rather than her persona. In the
photographs I will represent a man and a woman (me) filmed from behind. The
male figure introduces a new element into my work, since this will be the first
time I use a model in my photography.
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The woman will stand to the left and the man to the right as both look forward at
the ocean on a cool summer evening. It will be dusk and the figures in clear
view. Their shadows will be large on the sand that is underfoot and behind them.
The feeling will be one of possibility and it will be clear they are lovers. They
wonʼt touch and their faces will not be revealed at first. In several additional
photographs the man and womanʼs faces will be shot close-up while they look at
each other with the blinding light of the sunset in their eyes as the night
encroaches. The photographs will not be blurred but the faces may be distorted
because of the extreme light and close-up range. Only part of the faces, with
expressions that reveal fleeting desires, will be revealed, which is similar to the
elusive and fleeting subjectivity described in this thesis. The face will no longer
be a surface to see into as it was in my previous homages to Warhol, Plath, Nico
and Ono, yet it will still be an important element in my photography. Instead, the
face will be part of an environment to be immersed in.
Mirrors have played such an important role in my research and in the future I will
utilise them in a different way. The mirror will be the surface I will project the
video from this new series onto. The viewer will still appear on the mirrorʼs
surface in the same way viewers were reflected in Mirror Self-Portraits.
However in the new video viewersʼ reflections will be on the mirrorʼs surface and
overlaid with the moving image of the projected video. Projecting the video on
the mirror will enlarge the image to encompass the entire gallery space, since
viewers will be immersed in an environment rather than just a surface.
Consequently the reflective surface of the mirror will continue to be an important
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presence. Shadows from viewersʼ bodies will also be able to mingle with the
mirror, video and light of the projector in the dark space. The role of subjectivity
in this installation will explore the relationship of selves (viewers) in a room
together by being immersed in representation of sensual worlds.
Francesca Woodmanʼs photography has been deeply influential on my research
for the PhD. Woodman replicates her self and the world in her self-reflective
photographs, which were examined to facilitate an extended and more positive
notion of narcissism in the last chapter. Ultimately, Woodmanʼs re-flections
“broaden our horizons” because in her photography she draws attention to
worlds with possibilities for us to ponder on.187 Woodmanʼs self/images are
pictorial depictions of identity, which is this projectʼs core investigation, and also
play a role in the discovery that the changing cultural view of woman and its
progression are evident by examining contemporary self-portraiture.
Self/images in the 21st century represent women who have agency, in contrast
to self-portraiture before the 20th century, which depicted women without
agency. This discovery was assisted by investigating self/images by Thompson,
Sherman, Cahun, Morimura, Mori, Wearing, Moffat, Sawada and Warhol.
During the 1920s, Cahun deconstructed gender as a masquerade, while Riviere
wrote her article Womanliness as a Masquerade, which introduced masquerade
as a psychological term.188 Cahun revealed the construction of femininity as a
masquerade that was interchangeable with the many roles that one can play in
187 Leach, 130. 188 Riviere (1929).
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society, which she depicted in her photography. The fact that Cahun performed
repeatedly in her self-portraits depicted herself as a woman who had agency,
since she controlled the representation of her ever-changing identity.
Although Cahunʼs work was largely forgotten until nearly fifty years ago she still
produced work that was progressive in the 1920s and 1930s while continuing to
be progressive in 2010. The American art historian Abigail Solomon-Godeau
states:
…it is nonetheless undeniable that Cahunʼs oeuvre, with its consistent play with the instability of identity, its frequent deployment of masquerade, its penchant for masks and mirrors, is startlingly close to the terms of contemporary feminist thinking about identity, gender, and sexual difference. Consequently, it requires almost more of an effort to resituate Cahun in her actual time and milieu than it does to consider her work in the context of contemporary theoretical formulations about femininity, identity, and representation.189
Cahunʼs “play with the instability of identity” merges with contemporary self-
portraitureʼs role in extending and progressing the view of women in
representation. In the American film historian Laura Mulveyʼs pivotal 1975
essay “Visual Pleasure and Visual Narrative”, she pointed out that the
“female body” is “as an object of an empowered male gaze”.1
Mulvey observed that men controlled the images of women in cinema, since it
assisted their position of dominance, while having detrimental effects on women.
Mulveyʼs essay, like Shermanʼs photography, illustrates the subjugated role of
women in representation. Mulveyʼs essay created a framework to deconstruct
189 Abigail Solomon-Godeau, “The Equivocal “I”: Claude Cahun as Lesbian Subject” in Rice, ed., Inverted Odysseys, 114. 1 Laura Mulvey, “Visual Pleasure and Visual Narrative”, as quoted in Amelia Jones, Self/Image, 47-48.
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the filmic convention of representing women, which eventually facilitated the
depiction by and of women who had agency. The shifting role of women in
representation has also changed the power relationship between men and
women that is still being grappled with in representation and contemporary
culture. Concurrently, Cahunʼs photography, re-discovered in the 1970s,
depicted her subverting the male gaze and empowering the female gaze in her
performative self/images.
Moffatt and Sawada also empower the female gaze in their self/images. Both
Moffatt, in Fig. 2.13/14, and Sawada, in Fig. 2.17, represent their identities as
multiplied while performing as various other women that refute cultural
conventions of gender and identity. In the 1980s, Moffatt made photographs and
films that tore apart her multicultural identity so that she could be seen as more
than cultural stereotypes about Aboriginal, non-Aboriginal and Australian
heritage.191 More recently Sawada represented the Japanese tradition of
arranged marriages in Omiai, 2001, Fig. 2.18. She photographed herself and
mimicked the Omiai photographs, traditionally sent to various families to find a
groom. In her photographs she performed as many different Japanese women
dressed in contemporary and traditional Japanese attire. Omiai is a dying
tradition that most women of her generation do not carry on because it is a
cultural obligation women do not want to adhere to. Sawada and Moffatt extend
their gender and cultural identity in their photographic self-portraits through their
role-plays.
191 Grosenick and Riemschneider, eds., 108-109.
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Extending identity opens the self to the excitement and unlimited possibilities of
life. One of the main ways I extend my identity and the representation of women
is by paying homage to culturally significant men and woman. In
Transcendental Andy I imitate the persona of Warhol with outward signs in
order to demonstrate how my own persona has been affected by him. A crucial
part in this homage was seeing my aspirations reflected in Warhol. Thompson
also extends his identity in Gates of Tambo when he pays homage to Moffatt in
Fig. 2.2. By mimicking and inhabiting Moffattʼs art Thompson acknowledges
Moffattʼs role in his evolution as an artist. Thompsonʼs affirming exploration of
Moffattʼs self/images and the fact that he chose to highlight her importance to
his own photographic practice progresses the representation of women, though
the depiction of Moffattʼs influence, in contemporary self/images.
Paying homage in a work of art is an act of love that facilitates the openness
involved in shifting perceptions about gender and representation. Kristeva
discusses the role of love in art in her statement:
The experience of love and the experience of art, which serve to solidify the identificatory process, are the only ways in which we can maintain our psychic space as a living system that is open to the other and capable of adaptation and change.192
According to Kristeva, love allows us to “maintain our psychic spaces”
while being “open to the other and capable of adaptation and change”. In
Thompsonʼs homage to Moffatt, love, according to Kristeva, allows him to
192 Kristeva, as quoted in Leach, 212-213.
147
maintain his identity while being open to the influence of the other, in this
instance Moffatt.
Figure 1 Kim Connerton, Mirror Self-Portrait 1, 2009.
I have enquired into how beauty and love are encapsulated in the moments
when one is alone with oneself. This is what I aimed for in Mirror Self-Portraits,
Fig. 1. Examining subjectivity has been crucial in my video and photographic
self-portraits discussed in this dissertation. Mirror Self-Portraits is my latest
series and leads me in a new direction with my studio practice and research.
148
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List of Images for Examination CD Each artwork listed corresponds to the number on the CD. 1. Transcendental Andy, installation, 2009.
2 transparent film prints, 119 X 80 cm each, back-mounted with acrylic mirror, a 1 cm exists between the print which is backed/supported by clear perspex and the mirror (to create more depth), the video is projected, 77 X 183 cm approximately, 6 minutes in duration and looped.
2. Mirror Self-Portraits & Mirror Chairs, installation, 2009. 3 circular dura-clear photographs, back-mounted with acrylic mirror, face-mounted with clear perspex, 78 to 80 cm diameter each. 2 hand-made chairs with dura-clear prints inserted between clear perspex and acrylic mirror, 40 X 32 X 104 cm each. 3. Mirror Self-Portrait 1, 2009. Dura-clear photograph, back-mounted with acrylic mirror, face-mounted with clear perspex, 78 cm diameter. 4. Mirror Self-Portrait 2, 2009. Dura-clear photograph, back-mounted with acrylic mirror, face-mounted with clear perspex, 80 cm diameter. 5. Mirror Self-Portrait 3, 2009. Dura-clear photograph, back-mounted with acrylic mirror, face-mounted with clear perspex, 80 cm diameter. 6. Mirror Chair (cherry blossom), 2009. Hand-made chair with dura-clear prints inserted between clear perspex and acrylic mirror, 40 X 32 X 104 cm. 7. Mirror Chair (cherry blossom), 2009. Hand-made chair with dura-clear prints inserted between clear perspex and acrylic mirror, 40 X 32 X 104 cm. 8. Nico, 2009. Dura-clear photograph, back-mounted with acrylic mirror, face-mounted with clear perspex, 25 X 25 cm. 9. YokoPeace (the space between us), installation, First Draft Gallery, Sydney, 2008. Shown in adjacent corners, 2 digital photographs printed on Ilford film gloss, 90 X 95 cm each and a photo object suspended from the ceiling, 2 separate photos shown back-to-back, duraclear prints, acrylic mirror back-mount, clear perspex front-mount, 83X45cm each. 10. YokoPeace, installation, First Draft Gallery, Sydney, 2008. Shown in adjacent corners, 2 digital photographs printed on Ilford film gloss, 90 X 95 cm each.
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11. YokoPeace (the space between us), installation view, First Draft Gallery, Sydney, 2008. 12. YokoPeace (the space between us), installation view, First Draft Gallery, Sydney, 2008. 13. YokoPeace (the space between us), installation view, First Draft Gallery, Sydney, 2008. 14. YokoPeace (the space between us), installation view, First Draft Gallery, Sydney, 2008. DVD 1. Transcendental Andy, video, 2009 3 minute and 34 second segment.
