I first saw Trish Morrissey's work 'Front' at the Turner Contemporary, Margate. It was part of the 'Self' exhibition that showed works from various artists, Warhol, Emin, Jason Evans, Gillian Wearing. The concept for the exhibition was to look at image and identity.
In Trish Morrissey's photographs, she'd approached groups of people relaxing at the beach and asked to be able to swap places with one of the women. She wore a token item of the person's clothing and after setting up her 5x4 camera, got the original woman to participate by taking the picture.
Morrissey describes the beach as a place where the boundary between natural chaos and cultural order collide. The series title 'Front' alludes to both the seafront and the masks that people wear in public.
I liked the images in the exhibition (I think there were about five from the series on display). I am interested in identity and the social construct of the family and I found both the images and the concept behind them intriguing. It is interesting that as a viewer we cannot really tell the difference in a photograph between a real family and one that has been infiltrated.
I'm reminded also of Jamie Diamond's 'Constructed Family Portraits'. This is where complete strangers were asked to pose as family groups. I remember this seemed to cause some consternation for some of the OCA students at the time, as they felt they had been tricked into believing in the images. I suspect an unconscious anger at breaking a social convention is taking place here. I think we are sold the idea of the perfect family from a very early age through the media and is culturally reinforced at every level. To break those ties is a social taboo and can make people uncomfortable. This is also why regardless of family conflict, we mimic happy family poses in photographs and participate in our own deception.
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