An essentially untranslatable term, “Geiles”, either grand or
aroused by desire, has been coined by Susanne Junker for her most recent
photographic series. 12 images of the artist transformed after painstaking
applications of facial paint confront spectators with a work constituent of
anonymity, cultural associations & iconography as well as silent protest.
In the traditions of Chinese Opera, female characters were exclusively
portrayed by male performers, the masks and painted visage irrefutably linked
to dramatic personae, and narrative discourse predictable and unwavering. With
“Geiles Globales Gesicht” (Grand Global Masks), a seductive counterpoint is
given: the performer is one female, the symbolic reference of the masks
sabotaged, rendered “perverse”, and visual reference one of auto-portraiture.
For those familiar with Susanne Junker, this versatile artist/conceptual
photographer is not adverse to challenging either gender portrayal, sexual
iconography or to employ role-reversal as a means of visual subterfuge. The use
of the masked figures is a conscious attempt to address specific social
constraints and paradoxical elements in the visual vocabulary of the people of
the PRC, the voyeurism of the nations’ expatriate audience and community. The
faces are silent, the facial details entirely submerged in centuries old
practice of multiple layers of grease paint, mouths obscured, and save for one
image, reminiscent of the European Harlequin (yet, derived from a traditional
character of Chinese Opera), reflect upon the inherent associations of the art
form and its transformation. The “Harlequin” poses an interesting jest, as the
character itself plays against cultural monogamy and symbol: an image shared by
radically different cultural histories and traditions ridicules us with a sad
air as part of the exhibition. In contemplation of the use of the mask not only
as a cultural icon or metaphorical device for whatever proposed allegory, we
need to recall the significance and conscious/unconscious associations in our
collective visual experience. A central vehicle for dramatic anonymity, as well
as character portrayal, the mask today symbolizes what aspect of our society?
The stage of today, inundated with virtual and artificially manipulable digital
sequencing and projections has near abandoned the craft of the mask, yet their
appearance is evocative nonetheless. This work well reflects Barthes
associative logic of the photographic moment with that of “death”. Times
passage demands the re-analysis of form & & psychological association,
history reminds of our changing perceptions of what constitutes cultural
symbols & technological advent and innovation now demands we challenge
aspects of our cultural heritage. Fascination and voyeurism are doubtlessly
aspects of the human condition which have been amplified, and the artist
transfixes the stage in mute protest. For Barthes, this suggests that
photography creates the conditions for a profound loss of meaning, an absence
in which referentiality is removed although we still understand what we see. In
contrast, Jacques Lacan's psychoanalytic theories on photography explain a
moment of perception which exceeds the normal boundaries of the everyday. This
excess is at one and the same time an encounter with the self and with history.
It moves the activity of viewing from a transparent relationship of meaning and
expression to a level in which meaning seems to be there without the presence
of subjectivity. It is as if the photograph brings out the unconscious, is also
a representation of the unconscious and at the same time denies all of these
relations of meaning. Junker has undoubtedly redoubled the examination of these
two contrastive theories, the loss of meaning is observed, in a relational
sense, yet, by the incorporation of more sublime elements rather than a clearly
defined "studium" and "punctum", she delivers a visual experience which is
highly evocative, more akin to a Lacanian analysis of the medium.To graft the
mask from the dramatic arts and make it a central component of conceptual
photography, to transform the characters associated with each specific
folkloric character (in this case those immediately recognizable from either
Jinju or Kunju Opera) as an extension of an artist's adopted psyche- a
precarious venture which Susanne Junker has attempted in multiple previous
experiments- is no small task. A new representation of an object already
categorical & representational, embodiments of narrative fictions to be
performed onstage and now suspended in a silent two-dimensional vortex,
specters of themselves cast upon the visage of the artist at work in an
indivisible act of auto-portraiture, leads to an annihilation of the former and
enlivening to the latter. In her work, the artist has afforded new life, and in
doing, contrast socio-cultural parallels with her own personal inclinations to
provoke the unthinking mechanisms and latency of our image ridden society. Ours
is a visual culture, her attempts reminds us that we need constantly analyze
and re-analyze the immediacy of our visual environment, and equally, that this
auto-reflex has become a part of our post-industrial, ultra-technological
society...we are made dependent on the same devices which we have created
towards an actual liberalization from the past and former bastions of cultural
and societal "advance", now, defunct. While the sincerity of the artist is
undoubtable, her personal situational "flux", (from her former series
attempting to transgress the field of vision from her experience as a model to
that of photographer, from a past of the fashion industry to that of conceptual
or fine art...) has led to a body of work which signals diversity and boldness.
The current series, while aesthetically and technically more mature leaves one
with a sense of greater coherency than several of the series of experiments by
the artist of past years, yet the depth of examination is somewhat lacking.
While having consciously decided on 12 faces/masks and there presentation is
remarkable, within the sphere of cultural reference & social commentary,
there remains an understatement in content & manner. Would it not be in
order to cross-reference the function of the mask and its use in photography ?
A similar re-examination of those faces of antiquity well known and understood
in the Italian traditions of Dell'Arte, the Medieval traditions of the Mime and
later comic characters of the popular drama's and repertoires of North American
film, television and theatre may have a direct trans-cultural impact for the
audiences of Chinese origin? For a similar lack of full comprehension and a
similar field of misinterpretation exists in visual translations from the
Occidental to Oriental vocabulary. We may anticipate an extenuation of the
Geiles Globales Gesicht in new applications of form and content in the near
future with an emphasis on the Global. To bridge the representational is
perhaps to command or control the representational, and while the Geiles
Globales Gesicht manifests as a travesty of the transformations behind a medium
from one iconographic reference (whether contemporary or traditional) and to
another symbolism a minor note of detraction exists in her derisive mirror of
the sublime and the crass. It is one where the most neglected audience is
denied a role of similar contrastive analysis as the artist, while in a full
enthusiasm and passion towards the act of auto-portraiture and individual
transformations of the representative icon, has overlooked the importance of
the signifier of the "Other" beyond the Euro-Centric errors of both the past
and present, and has forgotten the importance Sino-Centric errors of the
interpretation of cultural symbols in balance. Nonetheless, a stark commentary
is inherent in the message itself & as an emergent series, proves to be
confrontational and engaging. R A Suri
After a long summer break we
got ready for the Shanghai "art month"
September that featured 2 art fairs, the
Shanghai Biennale and about 80 gallery openings in one
week. Jam!I hung my newest series
"Geiles Globales Gesicht". Take a look on the piece
I done, you can find it here.
等到很長的暑假我們準備趕上上海 “藝術月” 9月兩個藝術務，Shanghai Biennale
還有80多哥艺术家的开幕式在同一周. Jam! 我吧我的最新的个作品瓜 " Geiles Globales Gesicht".
情到这里看 GoSee
