AD 269: In Class Critical Writings

Jeff Wall:
"Picture for Women" 1979

 

"Picture for Women"

A Bar at the Folies-Bergères (1881–82)

 To try and get inside of Mr. Wall's head to know exactly what this piece actually means would probably be pretty hard. So, my interpretation of this work is done through an analysis of the photo.
Notice that on Jeff Wall's photo that the backside of the women is replaced with a man who happens to be himself. This brings two questions. Why self and why a man? I believe he replaced it with a man because he wanted to add a little more seduction and sexual power between them. (i don't know why he chose himself) 
Another aspect of this appropriated piece is the woman. In the bottom image the woman's gaze is calm and naive whereas in Jeff's photo the woman seems as if she knows what's going on behind her with this man but proceeds to look at the camera.  I believe he set it up this way maybe to show the society we are living in. Women have adapted to being hit on or looked at. 

Am I inspired by this piece specifically? No, this is not one of my favorites. I think that he is a master of meticulous work but I feel like this one is lacking in my opinion. BUT I love other art work from Jeff such as "Untangling"

"Untangling"

I like this image because i feel like the ropes are really an octopus and its crawling up to eat the man! and then there is just a guy in the background not really doing much of anything.

Zumarella

In regards to the video, I'm not sure if I could decipher the actual meaning of this short film. Maybe there isn't even an exact translation to the film makers themselves. 

The video seemed random and sort of dark. The video editing played a big part of how it is presented to the viewer. I believe the sort of mediocre editing between two clips really works for this video. I think it adds to the story of the film. However I don't understand the plotline of the video. There is a correlation between the mother and the main character. 

There were times I laughed and times that i was puzzled. This video was a mind twister that leaves me with a lot of questions.