Extracts from Gillian Wearing and Claude Cahun: Behind the Mask, Another Mask (2016)

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Curious Spirits

Sarah Howgate, who is the author of this extract has been a Contemporary Curator at the National Portrait Gallery since 2001. One of her key roles was managing the gallery
commissions. But before joining this Gallery she worked for other various galleries where she would set up new spaces specializing in British figurative art.  Her research interests are in contemporary portraiture and within this type of genre, she has particularly been interested in the self-portraits.

The extract is about the ‘Curious Spirits’, which was an exhibition based on the self-portraits of French Surrealist artists Claude Cahun and British contemporary artist Gillian Wearing. This exhibition particularly focused on these of self-image through the medium of photography and how this explores themes around identity and gender. A lot of it was associated with art movements, and how art flows especially with the way a self-portrait can be produced.

I would say that the reading connects to the theme of the week as it talks about the use of self-portraits, but I would not say it particularly shows a self-portrait as such because of the use of different masks, to sort of hiding their true identity. It’s talking about the face but more about how you can mask your own face with someone else’s, so although it may be your face, but it’s not your real identity. In addition, the extract talks a lot about Cahun’s and Wearing history and how their life’s changed over the years, talking about their experiences etc. which for me does not really connect to anything about self-portraiture, although on the other hand, it does mention a lot about how their work was based around self-portraits and how it influenced their style.

What I found interesting about the reading was Cahun’s life in particular due to the fact that she kept on changing her identity as she grew as a person. As she matured as a person, she used her experiences to mature as an artist, allowing her to attempt new styles and ideas, such as changing her looks to appear as different genders or personas.

I found this reading very difficult as it mostly focused on Cahun’s and Wearing’s life journeys and experiences rather than going into detail about their actual work. It definitely gave me an insight into the artist’s backgrounds, which helped me to understand why they created such visuals through photography, but I would have preferred if it went into more detail about their actual work. I would recommend this to the class if they would like to find out a little bit more about the artists rather than the exhibition.

Quote: ‘ I’m always trying to find ways of discovering things about people, and in the process discover more about myself”.

 Photo by: Jared Zillig

I have chosen to use this photograph, as it clearly shows that it's someone elses face on top of anothers. You can see that a masculine person is holding a feminine like mask on top of their own, which exactly convey's what Sarah Howgate is trying to say about Cahun and Wearing in the extract. 




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