Artists, Hannah Parker and Emma Nutbrown are both innovative and thought-provoking practioners, tackling the modern day concern of female representation within media, using a variety of mediums and practices to examine these issues.

 

 Currently involved in designing and presenting workshops, in collaboration with the Bristol Feminist Network, and Indie Media at the Cube, the duo exhibit a body of work reflecting their recent practice and exploration of representation, gender, and the media.

 

The exhibition consisted of two video installations; one acting as a document of a previous live performance by Emma Nutbrown, and the other as a finished film piece with audio by Hannah Parker. In another area a plinth will stand with a porn magazine presented open paged, highlighting a 'false advertisment' offering female sevices, with the subsequent recordings on attatched audio headphones by Emma Nutbrown. In addition to these more permanent exhibits, the artists have collaborated on a vision of a live performance, by Emma Nutbrown on the opening night, with the artists staging a 'shop window display' scence, by posing live as a manequin. This draws parallels with the performance documentation video Emma will be presenting.

 

Below is a further, detailed outline of the works

 

Hannah Parker:

 

The portrayal of the female in cinema has historically adhered to conventional and stereotypical codes of representation. Laura Mulvey noted that the female was always depicted via a 'male gaze'. Classic Hollywood cinema encouraged viewers to identify with the protagonist of the film, who tended to be a man. Meanwhile, Hollywood female characters were coded with "to-be-looked-at-ness" for example, Hitchcock's stereotypical blonde damsel in distress. It is these codes of representation in which I explore and toy with in my works.

 

I wish to display in this exhibition, a short black and white film on a loop. This depicts a female 'damsel in distress' in what appears to be a vague, dark, shadowy basement like space. The film is shot close up, making the 'damsel' appear ambiguous and indistinguishable at times, with a frantic, anxious yet glamorous edit, evoking suspense and disrupting viewing pleasures. The film has audio of a radio tuning in and out, creating an eerie atmosphere, and adding further to the sense of confusion and suspense. The film pays reference to film noir, horror clips, and the modern day representation of the female, whilst creating an experience and evoking a notion of suspense, confusion and anxiety in the audience. The themes in this installation commodate to those portrayed in Emma's work, and run alongside one another within the sphere of female representation, yet challenge and explore different aspects of the media in this subject.

 

Emma Nutbrown:

 

The predominant artist that demonstrates a clear influence in my work is Cindy Sherman. In her 'film stills' she elaborates that she wished to portray "the most artificial looking kinds of woman", thus, exploring the most 'unreal' female figures. But primarily her "History Portraits" series, in which she appropriates various historical portraits, depicting realities that are already artifices. For instance, she takes a version of the Madonna and child image where the viewer is fully aware of what it is meant to look like, and creates a version of it with a cosmetic artificial breast. What intrigues me about these images, and reflects in my own art practice, is that it's a double take; the viewer may not realize it straight away. It is not until the fake breast attached to her body is noticed, that there is an obvious artificiality being presented. This idea of interrupting the viewers' expectation of what an object or an image is meant to look like, highlights the inauthenticity and the fakeness of the image.

 

The first piece I wish to exhibit is an advert I placed in the infamous mens Escort magazine displayed on a plinth, published in December 2008. The false advert aimed to toy with the idea of artificiliaty and representation of the women that are exposed through these lad mags. For this I photographed and dispalyed a mannequin as my 'model'. This piece was prompted by concerns of western culture, how the female is fetisized, and how imagery is becoming more and more a fallacy of 'real' represenation. The false image I placed, was still percieved as 'real' by the reader, proved by the phone calls I recieved for the 'services', which were recorded and will be attatched to the plinth via audio headphones.

 

For the video installation I wish to exhibit, I have designed a blocked surface, all different shapes and sizes, protruding slightly in to the gallery space. On to this mishaped wall, I will project a performance piece I have done in 'Harmony' store, a renowned sex shop in Soho London; In the performance I am stood as a mannequin in their window display, to portray the artificiality of female sexuality, what is deamed as 'sexy', and what we are told to aspire in todays society. I wish to project it on an uneven blocked surface, instead of a flat wall, with the intention of creating a distorted vision of the video and thus female representation (or misrepresentation).

 

Lastly, I wish to stage a performance on the opening night of the exhibition; standing still dressed as a doll, acting as an artificial representation of the female form, much like the mannequin video installation. The piece will be titled 'Aspirations' in an attempt to comment and provoke thought over what the female is 'supposed' to aspire to be/ have within modern society. I wish to be on a small raised platform (akin to window displays) giving a higher status, much like that of a trophy, something to aspire to, despite it expressing an unreal and unattainable image of idealised 'perfection'.

 

The two artist's approaches come from differing spheres of the same enquirey, which makes their collaborations so interesting, diverse, yet complimentary of one another.

 

  Contacts: emailhan@hotmail.com / princessej@hotmail.com