tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17470944.post451147802052584472..comments2024-03-28T11:57:32.990-07:00Comments on Timeless - thebookmann - Feinin: Cindy Sherman' Untitled #255Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17470944.post-48456385369199232932009-11-29T09:48:08.363-08:002009-11-29T09:48:08.363-08:00"Hypothetically, if by your window, you notic...<i>"Hypothetically, if by your window, you notice a man rolling in the garden with a strip of cardboard between his legs, what would you think? And there is something more,..he is naked."</i><br /><br />Yes, I am laughing too. This is very funny.<br /><br />About the leaves, I did not notice them before. I just gave them and the battered cardboard a closer inspection. More laughter!<br /><br /><i>"Remember, I am in character, there is no gender..."</i> <br /><br />I know. I was actually laughing at myself hyperanalysing your work.<br /><br />About the positioning problem, I've solved this a bit for myself when doing self-portraits. If you are using a digital camera with a LCD display/monitor, you can get a large, lightweight mirror to position behind the camera so that it reflects to you what is on the LCD display. You look at the mirror and position yourself as you want to be photographed. If you are using a tripod then you need to get something to support the mirror and hold it up behind the camera. One of those padded vise-grip tools could be attached to another tripod.<br />-WAPninAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17470944.post-56613791329020600922009-11-29T00:25:21.056-08:002009-11-29T00:25:21.056-08:00Perhaps inadvertently, your Feinin study for me is...Perhaps inadvertently, your Feinin study for me is representative of things closer to home, and not related to Cindy Sherman’s exploration of authenticity and realism, or the lack thereof. To mention one association that came to mind, I saw my country's openness (conscious or unwitting)to penetration and not always by beneficial forces. <br /><br />Anyway, I located Sherman's original <a href="" rel="nofollow">"Untitled #255"</a> upon which this Feinin study is based because without the focus of that point of reference, I was spiralling out of control with alternate interpretations.<br /><br /><a href="http://braindrainblog.com/2007/10/08/cindy-sherman/" rel="nofollow">Kim Clune</a> writing about Sherman's work, says: <br /><br /><i>"Moving away from reference to realism altogether, Sherman’s woman becomes fully artificial, as does she, each replaced by the same doll. The pornographic and exposed positioning of Untitled #255 (1992) equates the “reality” of sex mags to that of posed plastic. The lack of reality is as exposed as the model itself and yet the demand for such “recreations” of sexual events inspires vigorous capitalist reproduction. This replacement also calls into question the authenticity of the artist’s role in representation, drawing attention to the lack of realism that occurs when objects are selectively chosen for representation. The model looks away from the camera to demonstrate, once again, a denial of the artificial situation."<br /><br />"Interestingly, using a doll as an unrealistic representation of a human being, although it seems to be a drastic difference of subject/object from the first pictured above, is no different in concept. Sherman brilliantly exposes photographic ”realism” as equally flawed in all."<br /> <br />"Sherman poses herself as if she were a film star and then snaps the shutter. As the photographer, she is the subject capturing what appears to be a realistic depiction of her object, creating a glimpse into the life of a starlet. At the same time, she is standing in as that object, an actress acting the part of an actress. The result is a representational copy of a starlet who has never existed, the perfect simulacra, calling attention to the problematic subject and object, and the assumption of real or historic photographic representation..."<br /><br />"The question then becomes, who is the protagonist? It could be the actress being portrayed, the artist herself, or the idea of a woman preening in order to present herself a certain way. In essence, all three possibilities require acting and the lines blur as to where one ends and the others begin."</i><br /><br />As regards your Feinin study, I'd like to introduce further layers of complexity by imagining what could be inferred by yourself, a male, assuming this female prosthetic but I might be inventing interpretations which you did not intend.<br /><br />Now please tell me what about the first attempt made you laugh?... and to be truthful I’d always trust melancholy more than I would “happiness”.<br />-WAPninAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com