Laura Young
May 15, 2009
These photographs document a private ritual in which I adorn my body with line drawings and then display my adorned body to the camera as a re-enactment of the identity formation process.
This ritual mimics the daily grooming and attention to appearance that is tightly woven into a woman’s self image. At the same time, the ritual becomes role playing that allows me to construct a self image that plumbs the depths of my longings rather than conforms to society’s ideals of feminine appearance and behavior.
My goal has not been to capture my one true self that has always existed, but to expose the dynamic self that has yet to be.
Visit this artist’s website at: www.laurayoung.smugmug.com
Hi Laura,
Thanks for posting. I wonder if you could say a bit more about your choice of marks–are they inspired by anything in particular?
Also, what size do you normally print your images?
thanks,
Susan R
Hi Susan,
For the most part the marks are unplanned and develop as I stare at my body in the mirror. I use the lines, dots, spirals and circles which are common to most tribal societies designs.
When I started this series several years ago, I unconsciously made marks to hide the parts of my body that I didn’t like and enhance the parts I liked. Our society’s standards of female beauty were deeply ingrained in my sense of self. As I continued to work, I tried to make marks which revealed some inner or hidden characteristic of my body or identity. The marks that resemble animal skin patterns are an example of this.
My most recent work explores the role of body ornamentation in different cultures. One of the roles is to signal an individual’s place in society. So I tried to make marks that conveyed rank or power.
I have exhibited my photos traditionally framed at sizes from 8×10 inches to 12×20 inches and also, some as large as 24 x 30 inches. I have added the image above showing the large photos.
Thanks for the comments,
Laura
Hi Laura,
I’d be interested in learning about how you frame the relationship of your work to the canon of modernist “primitivism” in art and the Western legacy of appropriating non-Western aesthetics.
Thanks for sharing your work.
Jillian
Hello Laura,
Thanks for posting!
Look forward to reading your reply to Jillian’s question and have one of my own.
I’m curious if you’ve ever recorded with video these investigations of your body. The close examination, your discoveries and decisions about where to draw the lines would be interesting to watch.
Regards,
Cathy
Hi Jillian,
My knowledge in this area is somewhat limited. So I welcome any comments to expand my understanding of these issues.
I see modernist “primitivism” as a rejection of some aspects of academic painting of the time as well as a rejection of restriction of the culture. Also, it was motivated by a desire to get closer to the basic, emotional, expressive, natural man that tribal cultures represented to the West. The main drive of “primitivism” which I will simplify as a “discontent with civilization” has continued to create many variants such as neo-tribalism, postmodern primitivism, oceanic/feminist primitivism.
My work , which I describe as being about human transformation, is loosely aligned with the theories of primitivism.
If you look at cultural appropriation during the time of modernist “primitivism”, you see that the appropriation was interwoven with other Western colonial, patriarchal cultural baggage of the time. The modern primitivism artist helped to create a sense of “otherness” or exoticism about the indigenous societies. This became part of the legacy of superiority and domination which allowed the West to separate and subjugate while supposedly celebrating the non-western culture. Because the primitive artworks that were appropriated were often the only examples of the indigenous culture seen in the western world, the western artist were in control of the context and content of the artwork. In this way the Western artist “owned” the indigenous peoples story.
When examining my own work to determine if it follows the same destructive path, I have asked myself several questions.
Does my use of a tribal style harm any other culture? Does it misrepresent or trivialize any culture? Have I offended anyone from that culture? Does my use of a tribal style prevent ownership or value by the original tribal culture. Is the tribal motif that I am appropriating a pure expression of that culture or is it in fact a motif that they appropriated from an earlier culture?
If I could definitely answer yes to any of these questions, I would have to re-evaluate my present artwork. As a female who lives in a culture that routinely appropriates the female image in a way that trivializes, misrepresents and devalues women, I would not want to commit the same crime.
So why am I making artwork that could be tainted with the evil side of appropriation?
My only answer is that this experience has been an authentic act of self- realization for me. As I stared at my body in the mirror, my markmaking was a way to make concrete and visible the emotional turmoil that was going on inside of me. As time went by, I decided to document my experience and these photographs are the result. As an artist, making art is intricately woven into my life. I can not separate the two.
However, the fact that it is an authentic expression does not ensure that it is authentic as “Art.” When I present it as “Art” I must be willing to let the viewers reaction become part of the process.
I look forward to your thoughts about these issues and to all viewer’s reactions to my work.
Laura
Hi Cathy,
I am working on a short video now. If I can summon up the patience to finish the editing process, I’ll post my results.
Thanks for spurring me on,
Laura
Thank you for responding Laura.
I wanted to get a sense of how you engaging with that tradition, which, as you recognized, is steeped in colonial discourses of race, culture and otherness. I appreciate your comments on the personal aspect of your execution of the marks. My comments were also stemming from the way in which you depict your face in many of the images, in some they almost resemble masks.
What I find striking in the images are moments where you leave your glasses on or where the viewer can see your earrings. I think that is an interesting way of de-naturalizing the image, not trying to make it appear “timeless”.
Hi Jillian,
I added a color version of the first image.
Do you think adding color makes it seem less “timeless”?
If I told you that I use eyeliner or lipstick to make the marks, would it seem less like I was appropriating another “time” or “culture”?
Thanks,
Laura
Hi Laura,
I’m sorry if my posts have come off as negative readings of your work. There were certainly not intended to be.
I was not implying that you were attempting to make the images appear timeless but precisely the opposite, and that I found that to be a very interesting approach to executing the images.
Hi Jillian,
I didn’t take your comments as negative. I’m sorry if I sounded defensive. It is hard to convey any nuance with email.
I asked the questions about color because I am interested in pursuing that path and I wanted to know how color would change the viewers reading of the work. Do the color photos look less tribal? And if so, why do you think it is?
Thanks again,
Laura
Hi Laura,
The color definitely gives it a different effect. But I’m not sure it changes the reading of the marks on your body.
Have you worked in color in different photo projects?
Best,
Jillian
Jillian,
I haven’t exhibited color photos. However, since all my digital images start out in color, I know how they look in color. To me,the B/W images provide more emotional distance. They are more about “women” than one specific woman.
Thanks for the feedback,
Laura
Sorry to jump in after the fact, but I was thinking about Jillian’s comment about the disruption produced by the inclusion of earrings or eyeglasses, as well as by Laura’s questions about the implications of her tribal borrowings. I wonder, Laura, if you’ve thought about adding an element in each image that would ground it in a specific time and place, which would in turn underscore that this is your act of self-realization in the here and now. IOW, that you might actually have to put on glasses to apply the marks, or set up the camera, or that you put on a pair of socks because it was cold in the studio that day, or you cut your finger and had to put a band-aid on it. These elements might upset the formal beauty and purity of your work, but I think it would be a welcome element in terms of your larger conceptual framework. It would also stick it to Western notions of female beauty right?
Just a thought….
Warmly,
Susan
Hi Susan,
I like the idea! I do in fact have to put on glasses to apply the marks and I have images which accidentally have glasses, cellphone, clothes and other elements of my “time” in them.
Viewers usually said that those elements bothered them. I was never sure why. Your comment helps me to see that they were upset about the disruption of the formal beauty.
This gives me a lot to think about.
Thank you very much for the comments.
Laura