***
In the Woodman room a series of videos and photographs.
"Selected Video Works 1975 - 1978"
Influenced by Surrealist photography, Woodman's self portraits possess a remarkable psychological intensity. She produced a series of videos in the mid-1970s after borrowing a camera from the Rhode Island School of design. Recently discovered and restored, they include a sequence in which Woodman is obscured by a sheet of paper which she gradually tears until her naked form emerges through the ruptures surface."Poetry and Dream"
Woodman's ethereal photographs appear to explore and dissolve the boundaries of the human body. Many of her self-portraits present her in otherwise deserted interior spaces, where her body almost merges with its surroundings, covered by sections of peeling wallpaper, half hidden behind the flat plane of a door, or crouching over a mirror. Often using slow exposures that blur her moving figure into a ghostly presence, Woodman seems to combine performance with self-exposure, suggesting the exploration of extreme psychological states.
Born into a family of artists, Woodman grew up in Boulder, Colorado but regularly spent her summers in Italy. She began taking photography at the age of 13, and her work reflects her absorption of range of visual material from Surrealist and fashion photography to Baroque painting. She sometimes included fetishistic found objects and phallic props which are seen in relation to her own body, or to the bodies of her models. Many of the photographs suggest a spirit of playful experimentation at odds with their sense of claustrophobia. Most of the photographs were given by the artist to her boyfriend, who appears alongside her in a double portrait. Although she was only 22 when she took her own life, Woodman left behind a significant body of work of more than 800 images.
No comments:
Post a Comment