DEFINING TERMS

Coming to terms with relevant words...

There are some words that are important to the subject of Art and Photography and here is a couple that spring to mind!

Allegory and Metaphor are used every day and especially in the arts to express the obvious without being too literal. Artists use these terminologies/ terms to start thinking about the differences between them and how images can represent them in various ways.

It became apparent that I had never come across the term allegory/allegoric and it was very interesting to explore its' meaning fully. A metaphor is a very challenging but creative tool which is used to create multiple concepts within an image or piece of writing. Looking at the work of Sarah Lucas and Simon Patterson helped to analyse these terms and gain a better understanding of them.

 Sarah Lucas, "Self-Portrait with Fried Eggs" 1996

Here you see Lucas slouched and quite confrontationally posed in this seat which immediately suggests a male presence in the room. Linking the fried eggs and position she's in you get the feeling that this is metaphor for "looking like a man". Her clothes also suggest "masculinity" and like many others, the first thought when viewing this image was that she was a man. Another suggestion was that the floor was also placed deliberately underneath her, like a makeshift kitchen, stereotypical of a woman perhaps? The idea of this exercise was to pick the image apart and make sense of it in a more analytical way, instead of just looking and then moving on, you look deeper into all the different objects and find your way round it.

More work by Sarah Lucas visit:
http://www.tate.org.uk/servlet/ArtistWorks?cgroupid=999999961&artistid=2643&page=1

Sarah Lucas, Au Naturel 1994 Mattress

It is clear that Lucas refers to the male and female genitals, quite expressively with the use of fruit and a fire bucket. Although you don't see the male and female physically in the room, your mind automatically tells you, through experience (semiotics, http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/S4B/semiotic.html)
that these are in fact male and female representations. These representations are visually allowing your imagination to wonder around the subject of male and female roles in a relationship. It could also represent a more open and erotic representation, for example prositution. This image is meant to represent married life, and is showing you the reality of what's to come, a few years down the line.

Simon Patterson, 'The Great Bear’, 1992

This image at first glance looks like a reproduction of the London Tube map, which in a way is, but with a subtle twist. The names on the map are those of famous people, some being artists, actors and musicians, these were on the forefront of major world developments. The different professionals are given their own tube lines, on which their names are gathered. The name "The great bear" represents a constellation of stars in the sky which are simple and an effective title for this piece of work.

Visit: http://maeveconwayfried.wordpress.com/texts/the-great-bear-by-simon-patterson/

for a clearer view of this image and more information.