Pat Brassington

"Brassington's images are at once charming and menacing. They rouse a sense of disquiet as they subtly and humorously scratch at the underbelly of the human condition. In her unique way, Brassington blurs the boundaries of the real and imagined, stripping photography of its authority, bestowing it instead with the logic of dream or fantasy."

I chose to write about Pat Brassington because I read about her in another book I just bought recently. The book talks about how she treats the human body and the boundaries she breaks. I have included some of her images because they portray what I am feeling and trying to associate with my own images. I am very fond of the simplicity her images hold, however they are powerful. In other words, they are simple but not simple. She has led me to explore more of the boundaries which I am upholding in front of myself to furthur explore how I can communicate a powerful feeling through simple body language.

After Thoughts

After my last critique, I was a little surprised by the class' reactions to my images. Do not get me wrong, I was very happy, I just was not expecting them to want to see me in the pictures or in my work. That was what I was straying away from because I did not wantmy work to become redundant and continue along the self-portrait line. However, I have continued to use myself and kind of view my personal life if you will say, from an outsiders point of view. I do not want this to be a point blank documentary of my everyday life because I know it is hard to keep someone really truly interested in your personal life. Therefore I want to keep the subject open for interpretation and let the audience have their own point of view, even if something important or at all is going on. I figured I will just keep shooting and see what comes of the images. I would like to continue using the holga, but I also do not want the aesthetic to overpower the actual image, so I have decided to also shoot with other cameras. Anyways, here are some new images I scanned in recently.

Shanna Jackson

I am very intrigued with a lot of my classmates work, especially Shanna Jackson. I chose her because I have never been in a class with her before, therefore I have never really seen her work before or how she works. I was drawn to her work because I felt like it contained the same aesthetic I have always been drawn to; dreamy and mesmorizing. The images she showed spoke to me even though I do not really know anything about her personal life, except that she has recently given birth. I found this aspect of her life profound because I felt like she wants to portray that side of her life, but at the same time, doesnt. I enjoy the stories that she has told through her imagery, even though she may not have a concrete concept or story line. The image of her bed with the projection on her wall told me a lot about her, all through one image. I thought in order for her to do this, her work portrays a strong emotion within it and I look forward to seeing more.

"The Fall" Jane Burton

I came across Jane Burton recently when I was on amazon.com and found a book called "Erotic Ambiguities." The cover photograph, which amazed me, was by Jane Burton. Her photography drew me in to buying the book and furthur researching her as an artist. Come to find out, her work possesses the same ideal and concept as I am trying to possess. She focuses on the emotion of the female nude by placing them in an isolated environment. This semester I am still playing around with this idea and the concept of body language, something I have never focused on before. I want to bring depth and meaning into my work while presenting some sort of emotion to the viewew, whether I am the subject or someone else unknown. I find Burton's work intriguing because her images are very ambiguous, presenting different meanings to them, however they are all powerful and make you want to keep looking. Burton also explores the psychological concept of the female body leaving the viewer unaware of the outcome of the image, which I have found very helpful in my research thus far.

Anxious Bodies

"Anxious Bodies brings together the work of three photo-artists, Jane Burton, Pat Brassington and Jane Eisemann, whose images all converge through literal or abstract depictions of the body. The bodies they photograph are presented as morphed, or structured so that the figure is distorted or altered. This exhibition highlights not only the diverse manner in which three photographers approach the subject, but also examines the connections between their practices. Their work is edgy and seductive, sometimes anxious in spirit, intent and meaning, as their images are infused with black humour or dark mystery.

Jane Burton, for example, presents the female figure in unusual and isolated environments, constructing a kind of psychological drama where the future is unsure. Her moody and filmic photographs are imbued with a sense of mystery, where the body denotes an unspoken desire. Each series is presented as a quasi-narrative as the photographs are linked in look and content with female forms invariably placed alongside black and white landscapes, empty interiors, deserted car parks or glowing orange public telephone boxes.

Bodies and other anthropomorphic shapes occupy the spaces of Brassington’s digitally constructed images. Her work is about the body and of a modern surrealist sensibility. Brassington’s images are characteristically dreamlike; yet, at times they can be quite abject and confronting. Her recent photo-works, however, are lighter in tone although they are still creepy and perverse as they continue to slither in and out of fixed readings. She achieves this by using odd and thoughtful titles, which redirect and enhance the meaning of her work.

In contrast to Brassington’s mischievous compositions, Jane Eisemann’s work is moody and dark. Like Brassington, Eisemann uses digital tools to charge her works with ambiance and suggestion. In recent work Eisemann is combining figures with architectural interiors she sourced in Vietnam and Japan and presenting them in a triptych format. Here, veins are discernible through skin that is shot through with a bloody red tinge and heads are metaphorically cut off at the neck by the frame of the image.

The three artists in Anxious Bodies all use the body to explore different ideas. Their work acknowledges the history, theory and weight of the body as subject and they explicitly employ it as a point of comparison and conjunction. Burton and Eisemann do this by pairing the human form respectively with landscapes and architectural interiors. Brassington, however, adds titles that both deflect the viewer away from the content and add further meaning, using the body as foil, a known entity that becomes strangely unknown. "
http://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/media/archives_2003/anxious_bodies