WHO_Sasha Grey

WHAT_Snap by Terry Richardson

WHEN_2007

WHERE_Penthouse – Gentlemans magazine

WHY_I’m working on a brief for a solo show in 2011 called Tits ‘n’ Ass. It’s a visual conversation about where I feel that I fit into society as a woman and my views on feminism. Not just directly into society but with as much importance as my identity to myself. I read a quote at a show recently by artist Louise Bourgeois (RIP) that said ‘My feminism expresses itself as an intense interest in what women do…’. This is as close to my own definition as it could get.

My friend recently showed me a video of porn star Sasha Grey on The Tyra Banks show. Tyra gunned her, but I really respected what Sasha Grey was about. She seemed a very intelligent young woman, who was in control of her career. I recently read some extracts on the world wide web from Ariel Levy’s book ‘Female Chauvinist Pigs: Women and the Rise of Raunch Culture’ (it’s on order from amazon) which argues that ‘America’s sexed-up culture not only objectifies women, it encourages women to objectify themselves…’ I’m not sure I overly agree, i mean of course to a large extent that’s true but in some cases i.e Sasha Grey, is she just not a clever business woman? Doing something she enjoys and getting paid well for it? Is she simply exploiting men’s often uncontrollable desire for sex? Aren’t all women guilty of using their sexuality to their advantage in some way or another? Is her success at the misfortune of many women being sexually exploited?

More to the point would I be considered a female chauvinist pig? I’m obsessed with listening to derogatory rap (my favourite song being Xxplosive by Dr Dre, hence the title). I admire Sasha Grey. I have most definitely used being a woman to get what I want, on more than one occasion. Does that mean I’m celebrating, partaking and practicing in sexual objectification? I guess we’ll all find out at my show.

WHO_Me (Suz). Again.

WHAT_Art date with Gracie

WHEN_August 2010

WHERE_Exposed: Voyeurism, Surveilance and the Camera, Tate Modern

WHY_I’ve been interested in how the camera and photography has maniupulated our concept of reality for a long time. Susan Sontag’s ‘On Photography’ & ‘Regarding the pain of others’ as well as  Roland Barthes ‘Camera Lucida’ definitley educated and incuraged my curiosity for the subject.

Privacy  and Publicity / Reality and Fantasy

Being bombarded with a vast array of voyeuristic imagery turned my thoughts to just have little power we have over what we see and what information we digest. Voyeuristic sensibilities are ingrained in our society. A deterrent to actually live your live. An escape from reality with no creative gain. The ‘Celebrity & the Public Gaze’ room expresses that the “notion of celebrity as we know it today is inseparable from the invention of photography”. Feeling familiar with celebrities due to the influx of imagery in our everyday life, despite never meeting them in person. I can’t bare gossip magazines filled with such imagery but I’m most definitely partial to looking at photographs of glamorous couple Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton (featured in the show). I’m always more interested in looking at the past.

In the ‘Voyeurism & Desire’ room there are a selection of photographs with couples kissing. I can’t tell you why i like them, but i really do. It isn’t a sexual thing, and funnily enough in reality if I see people kissing too much it makes me want to scream ‘get a fucking room’ at them. Despite the invasive element, when embodied in a well composed photograph it expresses a genuine closeness that everyone desires. That just shows the power of photography. Something I genuinely dislike in reality is captured in photography and translated to be viewed as beautiful. Or maybe I like them because I don’t kiss half as much as I should…

Highlights of the show: Merry Alpern’s ‘Dirty Windows’ secretly taken photographs through an air shaft of a brothel near Wall Street, NYC. A collection of Sophie Calle’s work including a text image piece of when she hired a unknowing private investigator to follow her and take pictures of her movements. A photograph with text by an unknown photographer entitled ‘Bank Bandit Exits after Haul’ I laughed for a while, it’s worth going to the show just to see that.

Lee Friedlander ‘New York City’ 1966

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WHO_Me (Suz)

WHAT_Seeking inspiration in all the right places

WHEN_August 2010

WHERE_The Surreal House at the Barbican

WHY_I’m currently working on three briefs. They focus on different aspects of my thinking, all of which explore the seductive and ephemeral nature of modern existence through the themes of love, loss, death and desire. I needed inspiration, so I found some.

‘Art imagines the house, film ‘performs the house and architecture builds the house.’

The Surreal house was full of film, art, sculpture and architectural references. The more I learn about Surrealism and it’s influence/influences it becomes more relevant to my artistic interests. It highlights the importance of the house to surrealism and explores the relevance of surrealism to architecture. A piece of writing in the show about Surrealist Godfather Andre Brenton’s home in France describes it as the ‘..archetypal surrealist home and the embodiment of surrealism’s longing for marvellous encounters between people, things, images and environments…’. Marvellous encounters are what I live for.

Highlights of the exhibition – Avant-garde film entitled ‘Steamboat Bill JR’ (1928) directed, starred and produced by Buster Keaton. A WHOLE section dedicated to Joseph Cornell including a couple of his magnificent box constructions and a collection of his ephemera. A equally disturbing and beautiful film ‘Jabberwocky’ (1971) which was written and directed by Jan Švankmajer, the film is loosely based on the poem ‘Jabberwocky’ by Lewis Carroll.

Claude Cahun ’self portrait (in wardrobe)’ c.1928

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WHO_Sulouski (My Russian sudonym, my name is so damn versitile)

WHAT_My recent love affair with Russian culture

WHEN_Last night I celebrated my dear, half Russian, friends birthday at a wonderful Russian restaurant and fell in love with everything about it

WHERE_Russia via London via The World Wide Web

WHY_I’m not sure if it’s because I own a 50 year old Russian beaver fur hat that belonged to my grandad from when he visited Russia. Or because my dad is writing a script for a feature film about the Russian ballet dancer Vaslav Nijinsky. Or because I met an amazing 70 year old woman Russian woman last night that out danced all of us. Or because one of the most beautiful photographs I’ve seen was taken by Russian artist Alexander Rodchenko. Or because I’m a sucker for typography that I can’t understand. Whatever the reason, I’m intrigued.

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WHO_Me (Suz)

WHAT_ My summer holiday

WHEN_July 2010

WHERE_L.A

WHY_L.A just does it for me. Here’s a selection of snaps. My travel buddy Phoebe Lovatt has some colourful snaps on her blog, just click her name. Get me?

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WHO_I don’t know his name but I’m gunna call him Justin

WHAT_A snap I took

WHEN_July 2010

WHERE_West Hollywood

WHY_He looked like he was having fun down there

WHO_Me (Suz)

WHAT_A snap on colour film

WHEN_June 2010

WHERE_My bathroom, the ace hotel, NYC

WHY_I was there with converse and ruby pseudo. I thought my mirror looked lovely all steamed up

WHO_I don’t know. That’s the beauty of it.

WHAT_A selection of found greetings cards.

WHEN_Been collecting for the last year or so…

WHERE_They reside in my studio, and some framed in my house.

WHY_Memories captured in old beautiful objects that you can touch is just wonderful to me.

WHO_Moi (Suz)

WHAT_A snap that Gracie take of me

WHEN_April 2010

WHERE_Paris

WHY_Carousels always seem to find me wherever I go.

WHO_Arthur And Albert magazine Vol.1.

WHAT_A 5 page spread that I wrote about Jen-ism / The Jennist Empire

WHEN_It’s up now go visit – here – it starts on page 18

WHERE_Arthur And Albert Magazine

WHY_It’s the future