Critique of Artists Lorna Simpson, Martha Rosler and Eisha Liisa-Ahtila
Martha Rosler, Lorna Simpson and Eija Liisa Ahtila are digital media artists who capture the essence of their times with their installations. They are all artists from different parts of the country and from other countries. Their works span through three decades. They use their work to draw attention feminist issues of their respective times.Martha Rosler is a feminist artist who was most active in the 1960’s, 1970’s and 1980’s.Her work also reflects her home state which is New York. Rosler’s emphasis is on video art, photography and collages.
Martha Rosler, Lorna Simpson and Eija Liisa Ahtila are digital media artists who capture the essence of their times with their installations. They are all artists from different parts of the country and from other countries. Their works span through three decades. They use their work to draw attention feminist issues of their respective times.Martha Rosler is a feminist artist who was most active in the 1960’s, 1970’s and 1980’s.Her work also reflects her home state which is New York. Rosler’s emphasis is on video art, photography and collages.
Her works were created during a time when women's voices were finally being heard, and yet there were still expectations of them during her time. In "Semiotics of the Kitchen", a video performance piece released in 1977, shows Rosler herself in a role of a housewife in the kitchen. She shows and demonstrates the tools and ingredients of the kitchen such as dishes, spoons, knives and forks. This installation holds demonstrates the various gender roles that women are condition to follow, such as a housewife working in the kitchen. It was expect then for women to hold traditional house roles. The black and white coloring of the installation shows how old fashion the stereotypical roles of women are. Rosler’s work “Semiotics of the Kitchen” is one of her more popular, but rarer pieces, because the documentation of it has deteriorated over time due to the shift of technology. Her installation still captures the essence of her time which questions the stereotypical gender roles that women must face in this society.
Like Rosler, Lorna Simpson's works are also feministic. Simpson not only addresses the gender roles in her videos, but she also addresses race. Born, raised and worked in New York, Simpson’s works reflect where she is from. Simpson’s works consist of photographs, drawing and video installations. In her work "Corridor" , a double projection of two women from two different times in history are demonstrated. They are both women of color with the same concerns. Both women in the two part installation are starting the day. One is a woman of the nineteenth century and the other is of the twentieth century during the 1960's. Both times are key moments in black history. The music for this installation switches back and forth between old jazz and piano music. The blending of these types of music represents the common bond that these two women have. Both women in the piece reflect the same idea. The women in both parts of the installation are alone, with husbands who are either gone out of town, or not in their lives completely. The letter writing that the woman in the 19th Century version part of the installation could have been writing to a husband how is far from her, or just writing about her daily routines in her diary. The woman in the modern portion of the installation could have been talking to her husband who happens to be on a business trip, or she could have made her own riches. Both installations are not clear as of why these women are alone. Simpson could have just simply chosen to portray them as independent, and yet lonely women. The cinematography in the double installation portrays various conflicts that most women like her face, such as a woman who is not dependent on a mate to care for her, and yet both women in the installations lead very lonely lives. The lonely portrayed at the end of both parts of the installation demonstrate how women of color are usually ignored in greater society. Most of Simpson’s works show the conflict between race and gender in society. Her works also play on the history of race relations and gender relations in the United States.
Like Lorna Simpson, Eija Liisa Ahtila's video installations are double paneled, illustrating the contemporary issues that women face in her country. Born in Hammelinna, Finland and living and working in Helsinki, her work reflects the concerns of her culture and nation. Ahtila’s “Consolidation Serivce” is a well documented double panel installation. It is almost as long as a featured film, and some scenes are about a husband and wife who are facing marriage issues in contemporary Finland. The double panel installation is successful for this film, because it both captures the emotional and cultural context of the film. One panel shows the characters’ faces, capturing their true feelings, and in the other panel it shows their actions. Unlike Rosler and Simpson’s works, Ahtila’s installation does not directly address feminist issues. It addresses other concerns in her native Finland such as troubled marriages. Finland like most industrialized nations is known for unsuccessful marriages and low marriage rates. The scene in “Consolidation Service” shows the struggle that a couple has trying to solve their marriage by going to counseling.
Rosler, Simpson and Ahtila clearly have different styles in video art. Rosler’s “Semiotics in the Kitchen” is a single video piece that directly conveys its message. The video art was created in the 1970’s when artists were beginning to experiment more with the camera. She does not use editing, or double panels. In fact, her work is in black and white. It is unclear if her work is not colored because it is an old video piece or if it was Rosler’s intention to convey her message about women’s roles in society during the times that she created this piece. Rosler’s video piece seemed typical of its time, because artists were only recently beginning to use take risks in their works with the newly available technology. Rosler’s piece was typical of the 1970’s, although it is not her the most impactful piece that she created. It still used simplicity to convey its message. Rosler seemed to have drawn influence from cooking shows and other television shows for “Semiotics in the Kitchen”.
Simpson and Ahtila use more technology in their works than Rosler, because the technology to create these pieces is at their disposal. They use the more popular double panel method of videography. The double panel installations are easier to capture the character’s emotional reactions while documenting their physical reactions. It also allows them to show two completely different characters simultaneously, as demonstrated in Simpson’s “Corridors”. The double panel installations are also more aesthetically interesting than the single panel installations, because they look like moving diptychs and paintings. It plays on the classic and the
postmodern.
Sources:
No comments:
Post a Comment