I came across this in a back issue of Liberation in the hotel we were staying at over the weekend. Eventually I tracked it down via Google France as part of a Vivienne Westwood ad campaign. The old punkster! It's a compelling image in ways I can't quite explain - and presumably a knowing reworking of the Marilyn Ulysses photo?
" ... something which resembles "what is" without being it ... "
(Plato, 'Theory of Art', The Republic)
3 comments:
I think it's actually better than the Marilyn photo -- I never believed Marilyn had got all the way to the end of that book . . .
Also, I suppose, an illustration of the changing nature of the feminine ideal. Marilyn looks a bit vacant, whereas Ms Anderson looks more in charge of the show and fiercely determined to show off her nipples.
But enough of such flimflammery!
Walrus
Yep, it's so obviously provocative but has - besides - something of the Barthes 'punctum' effect?
It's something to do with a clash of 'registers' - West Coast cult of the body and trailer trash erotics meeting Ancient Greek Idealism. (Yet ... a paperback 'Classic' & being read in beach chick-lit mode.) And the famous Anderson assets being famously assisted: Nature & Artifice combined. A manufactured Philo-Sophia. One's cups overfloweth ...
No doubt V. Westwood is hip to the potential in the image.
(It just so happens I am digging back into 'Lipstick Traces' & enjoying the whole Punk-Situationist hook up. A key text, for sure.)
Nearly done with exam stuff. The holiday of the mind beckons!
Cheers
The C.
Ah, a holiday of the mind -- you are one lucky Carpenter.
May the force be with you, projective or otherwise . . .
W.
Post a Comment