American Female Photographers famous for a maverick spirit have come into focus this year, prompted by the film Finding Vivienne Maier, about the rediscovery of the strange street-snapping nanny with the Rolleiflex Camera. Now, at Victoria Miro’s Mayfair gallery comes a show of US photographer Francesca Woodman, feted since her suicide at 1981 at the young age of 22.
Who was Francesca Woodman?
Woodman started taking photographs at the age of 13, but she was no naïve outsider. With artist parents, she studied at Rhode Island School of Design in the 1970s, then went to Rome to study further. Along the way she produced a huge body of work: over 800 photographs between 1972 and 1981.
Photography, performance and feminism
In the 1970s and 80s, Woodman was aligned with a movement where photography – often lacerating self-portraiture – became a documentary branch of performance art. Hannah Wilke and Carolee Schneeman used their bodies, often naked, as part of a dialogue about female representation; an endeavour extended into the 1980s by Cindy Sherman. Others have situated Woodman's work as more of a Surrealist endeavour: she was influenced by German symbolist Max Klinger in Rome, and people have also made comparisons to Man Ray.
The exhibition
Most interestingly, Woodman’s better-known self-portraiture isn’t seen at this show. Familiar Woodman images include the artist putting herself into odd and vulnerable scenarios: with a bucket of eels; with her hair hanging over the lip of a bathtub; in derelict rooms with peeling paper, often in poses that suggest neglect. The focus here, however, is on the strong patterns in her work: notably the zigzag shapes that show a move towards abstraction. It is a purely formal, aesthetic approach to the artist’s oeuvre, which is surprising given the way in which Woodman populated her images in a political manner. Many of these photographs were taken with a slow exposure and they have a dream-like quality. Whatever the subject, even in these abstract images, it is impossible to see a Woodman photograph without thinking of extreme psychological states. For better or worse, her biography drives our interpretation
| What | Francesca Woodman: Zig Zag, Victoria Miro Mayfair |
| Where | Victoria Miro Mayfair, 14 St George Street, London, W1S1FE | MAP |
| Nearest tube | Oxford Circus (underground) |
| When |
09 Sep 14 – 04 Oct 14, 10:00 AM – 6:00 PM |
| Price | £Free |
| Website | Click here for more information via Victoria Miro |
