On Monday the 10th of September as a class we walked down to go see an exhibition of Clare Rae and Claude Cahuns work at the prestigious CCA gallery.
In her photographic practice Clare explores ideas of performance and gesture to interrogate and subvert dominant modes of representation. Her work is
informed by feminist theory, and presents an alternate and often awkward experience of subjectivity and the female body
Recent projects have engaged with site specificity, involving works
rks that are captured and displayed within the same environment. A central interest within her practice is the exploration of performance document
ation, specifically how the camera can act as a collaborator, rather than mute witness, to the performer.
Claude Cahun’s photographic self-portraits present a mirroring mix of mystery and exuberance. Born in France, she lived most of her life on the island of Jersey with her stepsister and long-term love, Marcel Moore.
Also known as Lucy Schwob and Suzanne Malherbe, both women adopted their preferred gender-neutral pseudonyms during early adulthood. Moore, although often invisible, was always present – typically taking the photographs and also authoring collages – and in this sense was as much artist collaborator as she was Cahun’s personal support. Described in her own words as a “hunt”, through a combination of text and imagery, Cahun’s exploration of self is touching and at tim
es unsettling. From circus performer, clothed in layers of artifice, to a stripped-down Buddhist monk grounded by integrity, Cahun is engaged in an ongoing dialogue with multiple maenings. Tragically in line with the fragmentary nature of her outlook, much of the artist’s work was destroyed following her arrest and subsequent imprisonment for resistance against the Nazis. What remains bares interesting parallel to the title of Cahun’s diaristic publication Aveux Non Avenus, translated as Disavowels, which enigmatically suggests that for all that is revealed and given, much is still hidden or has been lost.
In my opinion Claude Cahuns work was hung really badly was not pleasing to the eye. All of her work was hung to close together and had no chronological order from date time or even grouped into
categories. The work was not done justice by the lighting ether the light was to yellow therefor completely washed out many of her images causing them to be discoloured to the human eye, it would have been alot better to have white lights. Also the work was not framed my guess was that this was intentional so it did not ditract from the images them selfs, which i do agree does work and it makes the exibition look very modern and clean cut. Futhermore the images had no numbers they only had a sheet on the other side of the room that told you everything but i feel it is better to have the names under the images because it straight away makes you think in depth about the title and how it realtes to the picture also the title can make you completely
I chose to change to the other side of the road and capture images from behind creating more of a story and understanding within my images. This angle creates perspective within the images showing different view points. There are two main intentional view points for these images. They are the two boys on the game controllers and the space invaders screen on the side of the building. The image creates a contrast with in because there is a dark and light side to the image creating a more visually interesting image. The main tonal color pallets for this image consist of a range of blues. The two boys stand out because they are on a lighter background making the viewer being drawn the them when when looking at the image.
You can see how modern day to day life is just passing by as the images are being taken from the visual interactions from the cars and a little girl entering the images wanting to have a go. These images are all about capturing what is naturally happening right that second, unplanned/ unstructured.
For the next images i chose to change vantage points to capture the interest of the children and what is happening with them. To me these images turned out really well the colors are vibrant and there are no blurred images. There is a lot of vertical features within these images which create structural vantage points for the image. The buildings in the background give the image depth creating a clear flow through the image following the path of the road.
Again i moved positioning so that I could capture the general public behind and there reactions to how the kids were doing in the games and the next lot of children waiting for there turn.
I chose to change angles so that i was behind the children can captured the Vodafone sign in the images. This gives the images context and gives the viewer more of an understanding as to why there are children playing giant space invaders near the side of the road. It also frames the picture crating a poster feel to the image or a advert for Vodafone. The contrast between the blue glass of the building and the red writing creates a focal point and main point of interest.
I wanted to capture the close up of the children's faces I used the portrait mode on my camera with a wide zoom lens to create the close up intimate feel towards the photos. These images were taken standing about 50 m away from the kids. I feel like these images are successful because you can see that they are clear and crisp the colors are bright and vibrant. I feel like the images create a real snap shot of what is actually going on and the children's real moods. You can see that I have changed the zoom of the lens in the images to create different out comes and see how the zoom effects the initial image. Creating a more diverse set of images.
