Assignment 5

For this assignment I had to pull my body of work together for a final edit and write a 2,000 word reflection and analysis; a short introduction/artist's statement; two more images for the BoW and I worked on the handouts that will accompany the assessment and eventual exhibition photos.

For the image I wanted to push further the idea of the work's title 'Target Practice'. I decided to use one of my prop photos - a piece of cloth from a prisoner uniform with a bullet hole through a pink triangle. I thought that by printing out a number of copies all the same and folding them into triangles would create a strong visual impact.

By hanging them from a small tree in the woodland they reminded me of Christmas ornaments. This is fully intended as I also wanted to link the image to the original postcard that Josef Kohout sent to his lover for Christmas 1938; this postcard with its inscription inside is what condemned Josef to a concentration camp. The text that accompanies this image refers to the events in Josef's biography where the Nazi camp guards preferred to fire on the prisoners rather than wooden targets during their shooting practice. The image links the body of work's title with an extract from the book that explains this incident and works as a relay between the image and the words.  

I've also taken this image and used it in a cropped format for the front cover of the handout. Inside I have placed Josef's inscription to his lover, Fred and used a cursive font so that the words look more personal. On the back cover of the handout is a 'backstory' that tells of Josef's life-changing experience after the events of his incarceration and some more general points discussing recent LGBTQ political history.

I've made a version at home using my deskjet printer and some thicker card. It looks good for assessment and for next year's exhibition I could think about getting it printed professionally. I have a second handout that has all the relay text for each image. Each piece of text is numbered on its own page and will relate to a numbered image that will fit inside a 16x12 clamshell portfolio box.

Both the artist's statement and longer analytical piece is now written and all of it has been sent off to my tutor for final feedback before assessment in November. I have a LOT of blog entries to make in the meantime. I visited a large number of exhibitions that need writing up and also some books need to be referenced here too. Thinking ahead my exhibition space for next year is booked and I will be signing up for SYP very shortly.



Here is my current artist's Statement:

Artist's Statement

In my practice I engage with themes of Queer identity. Using self-made or collected props I photograph them to make nuanced visual narratives that explore how LGBTQ minorities usually regarded as 'other' navigate mainstream society. In this exhibition piece 'Target Practice' I explore the hidden history of homosexual men in Nazi concentration camps during the Holocaust. By drawing out extracts from the biography 'The Men With the Pink Triangle' by Heinz Heger, I create visual metaphors for the recounted memories of Josef Kohout, a twenty two year old concentration camp survivor. The imagery mostly based on the form of the pink triangle is fractured and incomplete (the pink triangle was the symbol worn on a prisoner's uniform and used by the Nazi regime to indicate criminalised homosexual men); the fracturing alludes to the broken men and their lost lives - ignored and shamed by history. Each image has an accompanying extract from the biography that works as a relay text that sets up a two-way resonance between the words and the image.

The partiality of memory and the impossibility of an artist to make work that could ever portray the reality of the Holocaust unless directly experienced was acknowledged when making the images; nevertheless, this Gay hidden history has long been ignored and deserves to be told. By choosing an anonymous woodland rather than a specific concentration camp location in which to place my installations pieces, I juxtapose the collective social memory, that by its nature dominates and excludes, with the narrative of the 'other'.



Edit 20th July:

With my final feedback with my tutor complete I just need to make a few modifications to my artist's statement and do some tweaks to my presentation outcome for assessment. Keith has sent me a methodological diagram to look at so that I can think about devising one that clarifies my own artistic process. This is a really good idea and will help the assessors to see at a glance the process that my work involves from the research, design and prop making elements to the final photograph. We also spoke about using a magazine format as an additional element to my assessment presentation. This would provide a channel for dissemination of the work as an alternative to the handmade book format (with its connotations of a prized and collectable object) that would seem to me to be unsuitable for work based on the Holocaust.

Edit 27th August:

After my tutor feedback it was decided that I should include a phrase I'd used about placing an 'ethical boundary around my work' into my artist's statement. I'd used it when writing my feedback notes and Keith pointed out how it neatly summed up what I was trying to state about the conceptual nature of my work; he was surprised that I hadn't used it in my artist's statement. I agree that it should be included and after a few minor changes to the wording here is my second attempt:

Artist's Statement

In my practice I engage with themes of Queer identity. Using self-made or collected props I photograph them to make nuanced visual narratives that explore how LGBTQ minorities usually regarded as 'other' navigate mainstream society. In this exhibition piece 'Target Practice' I explore the hidden history of homosexual men in Nazi concentration camps during the Holocaust. By drawing out extracts from the biography 'The Men With the Pink Triangle' by Heinz Heger, I create visual metaphors for the recounted memories of Josef Kohout, a twenty two year old concentration camp survivor.

The imagery mostly based on the form of the pink triangle is fractured and incomplete (the pink triangle was the symbol worn on a prisoner's uniform and used by the Nazi regime to indicate criminalised homosexual men); the fracturing alludes to the broken men and their lost lives - ignored and shamed by history. Each image has an accompanying extract from the biography that works as a relay-text that sets up a two-way resonance between the words and the image.

The partiality of memory and the impossibility of an artist to make work that could ever portray the reality of the Holocaust unless directly experienced was acknowledged when making the images; nevertheless, this Gay hidden history has long been ignored and deserves to be told and the work juxtaposes a collective social memory, that by its nature dominates and excludes, with the narrative of the 'other'. By locating my installation pieces in an anonymous woodland rather than a specific concentration camp site I am placing an ethical boundary around the work that states that the work is conceptual and not just an historical re-telling of the Holocaust;parallels with contemporary society and human rights abuses can be inferred and are happening to LGBTQ people around the world right now. 

Assignment 4

The main purpose of this assignment is to begin to think about editing the sequence of images that form my body of work. This means that decisions need to be made regarding what images are strong  (if any) and to use the opportunity to appraise the project. If any changes need to be made at this late stage then now is the time to do it. I am happy with my choice of subject matter. I knew even at level 2 that I would be working on some element of LGBTQ representation. By narrowing down the scope of my subject to the oppression of homosexuals by the Nazis in concentration camps during World War Two, I have chosen a subject that has much opportunity for research - much of which has been wilfully ignored by professionals for decades.

My next task was to appraise the visual element of the work. The aesthetic form that my images have taken have undergone a number of changes before finalising on the concept of the triangle (the pink triangle being the badge that marked out Homosexual prisoners in the camps and also an adopted symbol of Gay political activism during the AIDS crisis years). I makde images that were inspired from events that were witnessed by and perpetrated upon Josef Kohout, a 22 year old Viennese homosexual, and the subject of the biography 'The Men With The Pink Triangle' by Heinz Heger.

When I made the initial images it was apparent that they were not working. I liked the concept but they were not visually arresting, seemed rather one dimensional in form, and too literal.

 

I began to doubt my project and wondered whether I was on the wrong track. But having the experience of the previous OCA courses behind me has given me the knowledge that it is best to work through creative problems and continue to explore alternate avenues before giving up quite so easily. Coming to a dead end and finding an alternate path or jumping to a completely new path is all part of the creative process. Experience has taught me that this is not a time for negativity!

So I lived with my research ideas circulating around my head for a few days (with the option of the freedom to abandon the subject and start afresh) when I hit upon the idea of incorporating the triangle into my imagery. I printed out some of my test shots and began to fold them into triangle shapes. Once the images became fractured their literalness faded away and some of the images retained the intent of what I was trying to communicate with my photography.

I still had a number of false starts with my creative exploration. I began photographing my folded triangles on a tiled backdrop. Although the images were all different there was a certain uniformity to this typological approach. I wasn't sure this is where I wanted to go with the work. I attended a number of Student hangout crit sessions and in conjunction with my tutor feedback I decided to look again at the work. I then began exploring the possibility of taking the triangles to a woodland setting and photographing them in an organic space; the intention was to reference this juxtaposition of natural and man made objects, as a metaphor for the terrible Nazi ideologies that tried to justify hatred and bigotry, all the while claiming that some kind of warped 'natural justice' gave them the right to imprison, torture and murder homosexuals.

I think that the woodland setting adds an extra level of conceptual depth to the imagery. My 'medical experiment' images in particular are made extra lurid because of the garish colour tones against the natural green and brown backdrop. I also began to experiment with prop-making at this time, taking the concept of the triangle and incorporating it into other ideas that referenced events in the 'Pink Triangle biography'. The reason for this was to avoid repetition and break away from any attempt by the viewer to read the work as typological.

I made a number of props, some more successful than others, and scouted out woodland locations for each of them. I photographed images during the course of a full season as the conditions changed. This was not intentional although the images can be read as marking time, and indeed, Josef Kohout worked in the slave-labour camps in all weathers for over 4 years.

To enable my concept to be completely visualised I would need to use some text from the biography 'The Men With The Pink Triangle' to accompany some of the images. This adds another layer to my work creating depth. When it comes to exhibiting the work I would rather that the textual information is not placed beside the images but printed in a small handout booklet. This allows the viewer to approach the work from a variety of intellectual and creative viewpoints - choosing to read the text before or after viewing the images, or not at all! As we all know images are polysemous and it is up to the viewer what they bring to the imagery and how the works are incorporated into their own creative, social, and political world view. My booklet indicates the artist's intent should the viewer choose to read it.

I've made a rough first copy of the booklet; it contains the text descriptions and not much else at present. I envisage that it will eventually include an artist's statement of intent and some contextual information that helps the viewer to navigate the historical aspects of LGBTQ hidden history.

My work also finally has a name after being pressed to at least adopt a working title by one of my tutors! The work is to be called 'Target Practice'. I think this is a very arresting title and graphically connotes some of the events from the biography. The title was actually suggested by tutor Clive White during an OCA crit session at the Brighton Biennial way back in 2016 and I'm very grateful for his input. I do wonder if 'Target Practice', a title that has been knocking around in my head for over two years now, has subconsciously affected my image making. Images like the one below fit very well with the title.

I haven't posted any of the text to accompany these images on the wider Internet yet as there may be copyright issues - something that is on my to do list to check out.

I have made a first edit of my sequence of images for my tutor for this assignment and will be posting it off on Monday, even though I still have one or two further images to make in the woodland; the sequence is not in its final form by any means, but it feels like I'm now on the home stretch.

Edit 9th May:

My feedback from my tutor was that the work is progressing well and has a broad depth to it. He liked the use of text combined with the prints and said the small booklet format works well as a handout for an exhibition. If I was to use the text and images for a photobook then different design considerations, such as using landscape format, would be more suitable. I haven't got to the stage of thinking about a photobook yet. I have purely focused on exhibiting the work and what that entails, I will have a think about this for assessment.

It was once again highlighted that I need to justify the chosen location for the installation pieces. I discussed this topic with Keith and I need to make sure that my contextualisation is clearly shown prior to submission for assessment. I plan to do this in the 2000 word evaluation for the final assignment. I also will write a blog post on my learning log and try to sum up my feelings on the choice of anonymous woodland location.

I was given a number of works to look at. I have already read Shimon Attie's Writing On the Wall but not sure if I have made a blog post about this yet. I am a bit behind in my blog posts for this module because of focusing on finishing Contextual Studies. Anyway I will re-look at this book as it is always useful to reread pieces of work at a later time, post development of my Body of Work, to see if any further insight is gained. I also need to look at Vectors of Memory by Nancy Wood. I think I struggled with this on first reading.

Adorno's Dictum, regarding the aesthetic representation of the Holocaust needs to be read around as well. A lot has been written on this piece and I need to write a blog post on the discussion and development of Adorno's Dictum.    

Anchor and Relay Text

The course notes discuss the use of anchor and relay text in conjunction with images. Anchor text is mostly used in advertising or news photography to make a clear point. Anchor text attempts to direct the viewer and leaves little room for ambiguity. Relay text gives equal weighting to the image and the text. They both enhance each other to create meaning that goes beyond the first level of interpretation. Much successful work has been made using both of these methods. Feminist artist's such as Barbara Kruger have based their art practise on using text and image together to communicate political commentaries on feminism, cultural consumption, and Patriarchal ideologies that oppress.

In the image below Kruger appropriates a popular song title as a relay text to communicate a feminist message that girl's (and boys) identities are bound tightly to notions of masculinity and femininity that are culturally constructed and Patriarchal. The text directly opposes the cultural pairing of the traits 'boy/strong' and 'girl/meek' portrayed in the image. Kruger appropriates both image and text from popular culture and advertising to create powerful insights into western culture using relay text as a method of communication.

Levels of Meaning

One of the exercises for this module asks us to look at the non literal use of visual codes that help to define the deeper meaning of an image. Metonymy for instance is useful when making images; metonymic words are familiar to audiences that share the same cultural codes. For example, 'the bottle' as a metonym for alcoholism is clearly understood by a wide audience. Metaphor takes metonymy one step further and instead of using closely associated connections between objects and words the association is much more diverse and works on a deeper level that may not be readily apparent.

In an assignment for a previous module I did use empty beer bottles to connote 'alcoholism' for an assignment about my difficult childhood. It seems that this metonym for alcohol abuse is clearly understood from a western cultural viewpoint.

For my current body of work I am using metaphor to convey more complex concepts. My 'Ediction machine' is a prop that I made to connote the idea of ideologies and regimes that have control over mass populations. The addition of the barbed wire and dead leaves in the composition is intended to convey a negative impact as a consequence of the edicts issued by the machine. The image is hard to read on its own and is obviously intended as part of a sequence and with an accompanying artist's statement to help guide the viewer to decode the image.

  

Natural Selection - Andy Holden & Peter Holden: Towner Art Gallery

This exhibition is in two parts and begins with a look at nest building by birds from around the world. The structure and variety of the different types of nest was fascinating. The birds made an incredible range from really basic designs to elaborate structures, through to collecting and sorting of stones and brightly coloured objects to decorate their nests in an attempt to attract a mate.

The second part looked at the obsession with egg collecting and the destruction that this has caused to many species of bird. Throughout the exhibition a narrative is woven that tells the story of the artists; a father and son and their collective interest in ornithology that has continued throughout their relationship. The father is a renowned authority on bird behaviour and the son an artist who has used his skills to pull a visually creative collection of elements together. The gallery space is interspersed with a variety of nests, replicated eggs, photographs, drawings and video screens that alludes to the symbiotic relationship between birds, man's appreciation of their beauty and an obsessive desire to own and ultimately destroy that which is desired. The exhibition is a fascinating insight into man's interaction with nature and the learning and damage that can lead to.

This was a fascinating exhibition and visually very well put together. Thinking ahead to my own exhibition I do wonder about placing my props from my photographs somewhere in the gallery space. Having sculptural objects on view certainly does enhance the gallery experience and breaks up the repetitive nature of just prints hanging on a wall. The props were not intended to be seen this way but I do need to consider this element of my practise. The downside to this is that I do not want the viewer to become too engaged with my working practice because the danger would be that my message becomes diluted and it is very important for this particular project for that not to happen.

Natural Selection - Andy Holden & Peter Holden

Level 3 Google Student Hangout 11th Oct

"There are those who look at these ruins today

As though the monster were dead and buried beneath them.

Those who take hope again as the image fades

As though there were a cure for the scourge of these camps.

Those who pretend all this happened only once,

At a certain time and in a certain place.

Those who refuse to look around them,

Deaf to the endless cry."

Alain Resnais, Night & Fog. (1954).

This poem quite accurately conveys the sense that the events of the Holocaust should not be seen as a unique, once in a lifetime event. It could happen again anywhere. I'm trying to convey this element in my work by using an anonymous woodland backdrop to my triangle images. But each time I show the images, questions are raised about the woodland. So I've thought about using two more backdrops in an attempt to lessen the impact of one particular place. Thoughts on this idea from fellow Hangout students would be appreciated.

Recently I've looked again at my initial work using the folded triangles. I made these for assignment 1 of my BoW. I then moved on into making other objects and placing the triangles and new objects into the woodland for assignment 3.

I chose the woodland because I wanted it to represent an anonymous setting for my pieces. I wanted to convey a sense of how alone the LGBTQ people were during their incarceration in the concentration camps; and indeed, how outside of history their story became as their plight was excluded from the Holocaust discourse. Woodland can represent many things to different people. This came out during a discussion on the use of the space at a recent TV meeting. I agree with this viewpoint as I also enjoy walking in the woods at times so it is possible that the anonymous element that I want to convey in my images may not come across that well. Questions seem to be raised by the viewer about the woodland when analysing the images.

So in an attempt to push the location into the background I've thought about using two other locations to display my pieces. I could maybe use a setting that uses water like a beach or river that has no defining features and equally anonymous. I could also include as a third setting my tiled backdrops to display some of the triangles.

 This would give me three distinct backdrops all equally hard to identify in terms of place; a tiled backdrop, a water setting, and a woodland setting. Thinking ahead to exhibition I like the idea of grouping the images together in the same way. I'm wondering if having three separate unidentifiable backdrops would help to signify anonymity and address the questions over place. I know that in their current form they would look really different, maybe even jarring, but with frames to bring the work together I think it could work. I guess the only way to discover this for myself is to experiment more and see how the groupings sit together.

Tiled backdrops:

'I was already wise enough to know exactly why a section of the 'dignitaries' - who included the Capos - were admiring us in this way. They were on the look out for a possible lover among the new arrivals.

The situation in which the five of us found ourselves seemed to me very much like a slave-boy market in ancient Rome.'

Josef Kohout, 22, while at Flossenburg Concentration Camp, 1940.

Excerpt from the biography: The Men With The Pink Triangle, Heinz Heger, 1972.

 " 'Blonde Heidi' goes a lot to the Kaffee Bettina in Bettinastrabe, where she is often to be seen with elegant young girls. She also frequents the Bauernschanke near the 'Iron Bridge' over the Main, which is said to be the meeting place for homosexuals. All these details are based on reports by our contact, and so far it has not been possible to check their accuracy. We shall make enquiries about this matter and, if applicable, send the results there."

Informer's report from the Sicherheitsdienst to the State Police Offices, Frankfurt-am-Main, 9 January 1936.

'You're a sticker, kid', he told me generously, with a slap on the shoulders. 'I like that, and I like you still more for it, even though I'd rather have a bird.'

The Men With The Pink Triangle, Heinz Heger.

Woodland backdrop:

Possible water location for new triangle pieces or maybe an outdoor concrete setting?:

Gillian Wearing, Claude Cahun: Behind the mask, another mask - National Portrait Gallery

Claude Cahun 1894 - 1954.

I must say that I thoroughly enjoyed reading the exhibition catalogue for this work more than the exhibition itself. In the gallery I found it hard to relate Gillian Wearing's work to that of Claude Cahun. Although it was clear that Wearing had made a number of pieces in response to Cahun's B&W images, the scale between the two was completely off. Wearing works in large format and the images are impressive and enjoyable to analyse; but juxtaposed against Cahun's tiny prints I found reading them together quite hard. In fact some of the works in the exhibition were not even placed together. It was not until I returned home and slowly went through the catalogue, reading the text and comparing the images (printed at a similar scale) that I was able to appreciate the intent of the exhibition. I was also unfamiliar with Cahun's work so it was a joy to discover her surrealist and subversive images and to learn about her lifelong struggles; first against misogynistic surrealist artists and critics who managed to expunge her from the history of Surrealism and then her efforts to destabilise the Nazi regime in Jersey through her art practise - a dangerous stance that put Cahun and her same-sex partner both in jail for a period of time. Cahun experiments with androgyny in her work and frequently changes her hairstyle or shaves it off and adopts all manner of costume to explore what it is to be gendered by society.

As a contemporary artist it is well known that Wearing plays with the idea around the construction of social society and the rules that are placed on gendered bodies. Wearing employs masks to play with the notion of gender, adopting the roles of family members of both sexes. Over time Wearing included famous photographers and other groupings in her constructions and the masks and body suits became more elaborate - although Wearing always takes care to ensure that the eye holes around the masks are visible. These pieces were included in the gallery as well as Wearing's new work made in response to Cahun's. I found the exhibition a bit confusing to read in this respect; but strangely in the catalogue the choices work better for me. I think the text helps to ground the work made for the exhibition and is a good reference for anyone undertaking gender as a theme in their photography studies.

On reflection the large scale of Wearing's prints and Cahun's endearing, tiny, absorbing images contain an interesting contrast; that of the ability and relative freedom of Wearing as a modern day woman to make large art pieces and Cahun who often made her work at home or in her garden. This of course is not a true representation as, technological developments aside, Cahun was fairly well known in the Parisian art scene; not only as a visual artist but as a writer too. But there is an element to be read in the juxtaposition of the subtle and not so subtle oppression that women had and continue to face in a patriarchal society that continues to assume and enforce gender stereotypes.