In what way can the work of Lewis Bush and Clare Rae both be considered political?

In this essay I will be responding to the work of Lewis Bush and Clare Ray, looking  at the differences and similarity in their work, and the way in which their work can be considered to be political. Both of the photographers in question have been recently involved in the jersey Archisle ‘Photographer in Radiance’ programmed in which they produced a body of work in reaction to the island and the history and connotation that goes along with the island.

Trading Zones

This was the first exhibition that I visited, this was the work produced by Lewis bush, as a result of living on the island for six months and a documentary response to the finance industry in this exhibition there was a wide variety of mediums; Blue prints, photographs, response slips from members of the public, some of the images were abstract and required a deep understanding of the link between the work and the theme of the exhibition.  What I liked about this exhibition, was that it was open for a person’s own interpretation, of how they view that finance industry, and that they were able to give their own opinion of the finance industry which would become apart of the exhibition itself. Lewis handed out pieces of card to ,members of the public with has the words’ Fiance is …..’ he then asked the public to write, draw or any other way that they wanted to express their feelings and opinion of the finance industry. He wasn’t saying whether the finance industry was good or bad but was showing the way that it has affected the island and the impact that it has had. Another part of the exhibition that I thought was highly effective was when Lewis had overlay many images of males and females who work in finance corporations. I believe that this made the viewer look at themselves and think would they be making a differences if they when into this industry or if they would just be the same as every other person working their and become another number working for a corporation.

Clare Rae

Clare Rae’s worked that she produced is entitled ‘ Entre Nous’, in which she has looked at the work of Claude Cahun, who was a female, queer artist and activist, who came to jersey during the second world war to escape from the Nazi as she was Jewish.To produce the work Clare visited many places around the island as she wanted to recreate the works of Claude Cahun, she set up a timer and then posed in the images, in many of the images she has confined her body to small and inclosed spaces, so her body becomes apart of the landscape. Her self portraits Clare’s who comes under the theme of surrealism and self expression.Clare also used a film camera which allowed her to put more thought into her work as it restricted her to a certain number of images per film, which shows that each one of her images where careful panned and throughout and to a high standard. A feature of Clares images focused on the idea of the male gaze, which is one of the reason that she has included her own body in the images, to symbolize the way in which females bodies have become incredibly sexualized, also so by doing this she is in control the female body in a piece of art, as historically in art male artist have sexualized the female body .

To compare both of the bodies of work Bush’s approach is to document the finance industry in a very open way as he is an is coming to jerseys and viewing it from the outside and showing the look on the industry. But what he is doing fro members of the public who come to view the exhibition is laying down  the effect of the industry down right in front of people’s faces so they are able to struce their own view of the impact that it having on Jersey. Whereas Clare Read work has more of a personal touch to it as she includes her own body in images so it becomes a part of the landscape, so her work shows her own opinion of who she would fit into the island, and how she respond from the island by reflecting on the work of Claude Cahun.