I took these images of my friends loosely inspired by the work of Michelle Sank and Doug Dubois.

I have edited my favourites and included them below.

Here are some images I produced loosely inspired by the work of Sam Contis (as found in my Artist References). I am happy with some of these, and those which I liked I have edited and will include below.

Cindy Sherman

Cindy Sherman was born on the 19th of January 1954 in New Jersey. Her work consists mostly of portraiture that explores ideas of identity, where she assumes the presentation of a myriad of characters. She has had a long and successful career, with her work being exhibited across America and Europe, and was made an Honorary Member of the Royal Academy of Arts, London in 2010.

Arguably her breakthrough work was her series Untitled Film Stills created between 1977 and 1980 after she moved to New York. She is portrayed in a variety of different guises with props, having taken the role of model, photographer, stylist and director, and, in turn, plays the part of typical female caricatures in performance media to create scenes that resemble those from mid-20th-century B movies. These images rely on female stereotypes and caricatures such as the jaded seductress, the unhappy housewife, the jilted lover, and the vulnerable naif. 

“I wish I could treat every day as Halloween, and get dressed up and go out into the world as some eccentric character,”

Cindy Sherman

Claude Cahun

Cahun moved to Jersey in 1937 alongside her stepsister and lover Marcel Moore and stayed up until her death in 1954. Her work is most extensively documented with the Jersey Heritage Trust for this reason. Her death sentence was unable to be fulfilled due to the liberation of Jersey the year after its issue, and so she was freed from imprisonment.

However, soon after her freedom was granted, she died of ill health (possibly owed to the conditions of her imprisonment) in 1954. Moore committed suicide in 1972 and they are buried together in St Brelade’s Churchyard.

What was so pioneering about Cahun’s work?

Obviously, at the time of production, a lot of her work shocked viewers with its stark and brazen breaking of ‘the rules’. Cahun was not conducting herself in the manner that was expected of her and this was the most unique aspect of her style. Her resistant nature is shown in how she treated the occupying Germans and it is therefore only expected for this to shine through in her work.

This article explores her relevance in today’s world.

“Under this mask, another mask. I will never be finished removing all these faces.” 

Claude Cahun

Nilupa Yasmin

Nilupa Yasmin is a primarily lens-based artist who also explores crafting in her work (as a reclamation of what is a stereotypically and expected female activity in India), which focuses heavily on the subjects of identity, self, and culture. As a British-Bangladeshi, Yasmin finds inspiration in her heritage and connections between her family background and her life in South London. This connection is one that will strike a chord with many as the community of South Asians in London and other major British cities is a large one, and her work discusses and explores experiences that are fairly common in this community.

Her series Mother Told Me Stories is her most recent multi-media project that explores the reclamation of the skill of embroidery from the British Raj‘s attempts to abolish the Indian cotton trade in 1876 and control how it was used. This work presents self-portraits of Yasmin, as with the majority of her pieces, in the role of Bangladeshi women weaving Kanthas (traditional quilts embroidered from scraps of cloth), alongside embroidered fabric and some wording that gives further context to the piece.

I am also personally interested by the series Wallpaper of Memories, where Yasmin combines old family photos with an arrangement of various patterns found within each image. She curates a response that connects, once again, her own success as an artist to her personal and family history to create a contemporary piece.

Sam Contis

Sam Contis, born 1982 in Pennsylvania, is a visual artist whose work focuses on aspects of the beauty of the human form and its relationship with human connection. Her work has been widely exhibited in locations such as the Barbican in London and the Museum of Modern Art in New York. ‘Contis puts us face to face with detail, texture, and flesh, creating an intensely physical terrain where individuals and the landscape surrounds us. “The earth and body become indistinguishable,” she said.’ (https://www.moma.org/artists/68380)

Here are some images that will inspire me in my attempts to create work that fits the ‘Identity’ brief.

Identity politics:

‘political or social activity by or on behalf of a racial, ethnic, cultural, religious, gender, or other group, usually undertaken with the goal of rectifying injustices suffered by group members because of differences or conflicts between their particular identity (or misconceptions of their particular identity) and the dominant identity (or identities) of a larger society.’ (https://www.britannica.com/topic/identity-politics)

Culture wars:

‘A culture war is a cultural conflict between social groups and the struggle for dominance of their values, beliefs, and practices. It commonly refers to topics on which there is general societal disagreement and polarization in societal values.’ (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture_war)

‘For [historian Tom Holland], the term culture war relates to the German word Kulturkampf, which described the clash between Bismarck’s government and the Catholic church in 1870s Prussia. It is therefore specifically a dispute between religious and secular forces. Certainly if we look at America, where the modern incarnation of the culture wars was first identified, the conflicts over abortion and gay marriage have been fought, at least by one side, from an explicitly religious perspective.’ (https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jun/13/everything-you-wanted-to-know-about-the-culture-wars-but-were-afraid-to-ask)

What are the positive/negative outcomes?

When looking at these issues, it is easy to see that they can bring about negative impact for whichever groups they affect, such as further divisions among the increasingly segregated sectors of society. However, there are also positive impacts because it allows for a far more widely revised democracy as more types of people are given a voice to aid and make change to their differing issues.

How does this link to the arts?

Art is an expression of the artist’s feelings, thoughts and opinions so it is only natural that this should include the manifestation of their political views. This is important as, throughout history, artists have used their medium to fight for what they believe in and create valuable work in the fabric of their nation, region or minority’s political history. One example of this is the emergence of the Dadaism movement as a reaction to the violence of the First World War.

A more modern example is the work of Keith Haring, who used his art to make statements on socially important issues such as the spread of HIV/AIDS (through his famous slogan Silence = Death), the use of nuclear weaponry, and the apartheid. His work forced people to talk about the issues and this is an integral characteristic of protest art.

“Art is nothing if you don’t reach every segment of the people” – Keith Haring.

Here are some examples of other protest artists that have used their work as a mouthpiece for their opinions and beliefs.

https://ruthmillington.co.uk/12-famous-protest-art-examples/

Exploring different areas of identity involves looking at what influences a person and their make-up and this has a variety of different manifestations.

Femininity vs Masculinity

The concept of contrasting femininity and masculinity in their respective intricacies can create very interesting studies, as they can both be interpreted in multiple different ways.

At its base level, and in its most generalised form, femininity is made up of emotive, nurturing and gentle traits, whereas masculinity is highly juxtaposed with this as it shows a more assertive and independent profile. ‘Traditional masculinity includes norms that encourage many of the aggressive behaviours whereas traditional femininity emphasizes aggression very little.’

In contrast to this, we see the narrative pushed on to men as the complete opposite – with a need to be strongly built with short hair and nails. This is, in essence the appearance that lends itself to practical work, and of course this is where it differs from female presentation, as, in history, women have not been placed in hard labour roles whilst men have been expected to go out and hunt or craft for his family’s needs. Men are also expected to not show emotion in the same way that women are – it is seen as a weakness (perhaps demonstrating and furthering the agenda that women’s traits are presented as weak, especially when present in a man). This is important as it shows the damage that the patriarchy does not only to women, but to the men who created it, and this is demonstrated by the high suicide rates among young men. This is most often because they feel that it is their only choice; they cannot ask for help because of the culture surrounding this presenting it as a weakness, and thereby, a loss of their masculinity.

Environmental Influences

People’s identities are also influenced by the environment in which they exist, both in childhood and later life. Home life, relationships with others and place of upbringing all have impact on the way that one presents, expresses and sees oneself.

For example, someone who grows up in council housing will have a far different outlook on life than someone who had a more middle-class upbringing, similar to the likelihood that someone who is born into an abusive or broken home is to develop issues with self esteem or confidence whilst someone whose home life is content and settled is not as likely to have these issues.

Those who have close relationships with their family are much more likely to be influenced by their opinions and beliefs, and sometimes those who want to create distance from or already have negative relationships with their family can work to actively disagree with these outlooks. We see this manifested in choices in later life as well as who they choose to surround themselves with.

Political Influences

This branch of identity is, like the others, dependent on the conditions of the others – i.e., someone’s political standpoint relies upon their identity (gender, race, upbringing, religion, etc.) because this dictates their opportunity, which is essentially the basis of democracy.

This links to how one presents oneself as usually someone who is more liberal in their political thinking will differ strongly in style to someone far more conservative. Therefore, it is an aspect of identity that artists can take inspiration from. It also links to ideas of identity politics, which I will explore later on.

Double exposure

I like this image but it was fairly low-effort and I am still not the best at this technique so I hope to learn more and use it a bit more effectively in the future.

Diamond Cameo

First I took three images with the same colour background and different poses and cut out oval shapes using the Elliptical Marquee Tool. Having copied these selections I created a new photoshop canvas.

I arranged the three ovals in a triangle, copying the left one and flipping it horizontally so that it was inverted. This created the diamond shape that I wanted. I then used the drop shadow tool to add a shadow to one of the portraits.

Having done this, I selected that layer and chose ‘Copy layer style’, before selecting the other three layers and pressing ‘Paste layer style’, as shown below.

This meant that all four ovals now had equal shadows. I wanted to experiment with different background colours so, using the ‘add layer’ button shown below, then selecting black in the front square, I pressed the Paint bucket tool and clicked the background to change it to black.

Below are the results with black, white and sepia backgrounds.

This was my first attempt at the longer exposure images (achieved with an increased shutter speed) and I don’t think it came out the way I intended and so I plan to try again with different balances of shutter speed and aperture to find what looks best. I am really happy with the normally exposed images however and I think they look really good. The harshness of the light lends itself to creating a chiaroscuro effect and I like the way this looks.