LOT Phillips de Pury & Company  /  PHOTOGRAPHS PART II  / 

181

LORNA SIMPSON (American, b. 1960) EATING DISORDER initialed

Currency:USD Category:Everything Else / Other Start Price:NA Estimated At:1,000.00 - 1,500.00 USD
LORNA SIMPSON (American, b. 1960) EATING DISORDER initialed
LORNA SIMPSON (American, b. 1960) EATING DISORDER initialed "LS" in pencil on verso of frame board gelatin silver print with text in artist's Plexiglas and wood frame overall dimensions: 18 3/4 x 15 3/4 x 1 3/8 in. (47.6 x 40 x 3.5 cm) 1989/1993 this print is number 1 from an edition of 10 PROVENANCE From the artist donated for sale to benefit the Howland Elementary School, CHICAGO Private Collection, ILLINOIS Simpson's conceptual, multilayered "phototexts" address issues of race, gender and the concept of identity and constructed stereotypes. Her work challenges the viewer to think critically. The image of a fragment of a black woman's body is meant to symbolize "every-black-woman". So often in commercial and popular imagery, the female body is represented in fragments, legs, breasts, often faceless, and her identity is not considered. She is summed up by how well her body fits into the societal ideals or expectations. The issue of eating disorders, often seen as a consequence of the media construction of the female ideal, seems such a direct response to this form of representation, but the phototext addresses more than the obvious. As in most of Simpson's imagery, the image remains vague. Other than the depiction of a woman's mouth, there is no obvious connection to the concept addressed in the text. However, the text possesses a vagueness as well. Does "they" refer to eating disorders, the voyeuristic audience or those who dictate popular imagery? "Simpson's refusal to anchor the meaning of the text, to show what the work means, or provide easily digested themes, leaves the viewer responsible for what she or he sees and knows" (Hartman, p. 66).
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