Yesterday I went to see Elina Brotherus speak about her work. It made me very happy to have been there. Listening to her and seeing her work answered so many questions!
Brotherus told us that she applied towards the end of her MA for a residency at a French Museum. When she arrived she had no French although spoke Finnish, German and English already - imagine being that accomplished before you've even begun. In order to learn French she followed her friend's advice and used Post It Notes everywhere with the words of the objects they were stuck to written in French on them. (Given I'd been reading about object relations in infants only the day before it's difficult not to see this as a moment of startling synchronicity - how this informs my understanding of her work and perhaps ultimately mine will take me a little longer to think about so forgive me for brushing over it for now*.)
Brotherus documented her time there by taking self portraits. One of the most fortuitous images, La Reflet from Suites Françaises 2, was of herself standing by the mirror and placed on the mirror covering her face was the Post It Note for reflection-reflet - without a digital camera there was no way she could have known the yellow sticky paper would be placed so perfectly and she was grateful for such a lucky accident.
She created a series of images of herself with these notes and one of them, Le nez de Monsieur Cheval, is on the cover of photography as contemporary art by Charlotte Cotton. The work was exhibited and Brotherus has since forged a hugely impressive and prolific career, as well as teaching art photography. She talked about using her Self as an example of life in her work, of life guiding the work. And because she is that way inclined she found that even when she left autobiographical work behind for ten years and concentrated on landscapes the self portraits 'pushed through again'. The photographs we were looking at were the ones taken at the beginning of her career as discussed and some later ones linked but taken more recently.
Brotherus was asked to return to do some work at the same institution in 2011 working with young people and she asked if could stay in the same room as she had done before. During her own time she took photographs of herself and the space again with Post It Notes only this time the language, still French, was more fluent as by now she had lived in France, bought a house with someone and then left again (although still owns the house). Brotherus read out and translated some of the sentences she had photographed. The Post It Notes were by now covered in complex, three dimensional contemplations containing positive and negative thoughts.
They were deeply personal and honest comments about where she was emotionally at the time of the work and about her state of happiness. I found it extremely moving as there was no self-pity for her sadness, just a matter of fact honesty. This was quite hard to comprehend I suppose because we are used to more drama (well I am) and perhaps even histrionics when hearing people report sadness and loss. There was emotion but it was contained.
And that is what I get from Brotherus' work. A sense of certain, profound containment; unobtrusive strength and a still, quiet powerfulness. She told us she was happy when she did the first Post It Note series although many of the photographs do not convey a sense of happiness to me. Happy because she was being taken seriously as an artist and able to do the work in the first place.
The second series which is shown in conjunction with the earlier is poignant and brimming with a sense of loss for youth and dreams and hopes. As if she wonders how she arrived at this later place.
In many of the images you can see the cable release and this is important as the viewer is then reminded that the author is also the subject; this is a subjective work about the self. What the viewer takes away in connection with that is really left to her (or even him).
As I mentioned in my last post the idea of working with the self has been on my mind a lot since I have been compelled to photograph myself for the previous two assignments and have really struggled with that.
Brotherus was asked if she could have chosen to use a model for these series'. I knew the answer to be a resolute 'no'. The work is deeply personal - it is about her relationship with her past, present and future and to ask someone else to act it out would be to undermine it. Her work is not a play or a drama. It is the truth, uncluttered and unalloyed, simple and straight forward.
I have looked a lot at quite 'other-worldly' (stylistically) photographs recently - mainly because I have been attracted to and experimenting with a certain style of my own, tricks if you will. But I was so taken with the power of Brotherus and her work. She is like a swan; composed, powerful, beautiful and so is the art. There is no trickery.
Someone asked Brotherus if she works with an assistant or anyone else helping her. Again I felt I knew the answer; this is the sort of work you must do on your own if you can. You cannot have the worry of another - an Other. It's too personal and needs to take as long as it takes, with your own thoughts and space. (I am thinking of something where I might possibly need someone to help and I can only think my best and oldest friend will do under those circumstances so I hope she is up for it if I do decide I need her.)
I was so pleased to have attended, to find out more about another artist photographer, to see what else is possible, to see the seriousness with which Elina Brotherus takes her work, to witness someone sharing herself so gracefully. I read an article about women over-sharing their pain, flagellating themselves, baring their souls in a most painful and self-hating way by Suzanne Moore in The Guardian. It was a really interesting article especially in light of me having been looking at Brotherus' work yesterday, and my own compulsion to explore what ever it is that I am working towards. I thought the article was extremely apt but I do NOT think that Brotherus is doing the sort of anti-feminist-bearing-of-the-soul-in-order-to-be-hurt-further-by-self-and-others that Suzanne Moore is describing. And I'm not yet sure how she avoids that. How she manages to be so graceful. Perhaps it's honesty. Enormous self-awareness. Generosity. I just don't know.
Elina Brotherus' website
Guardian article by Suzanne Moore
Object relations
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