Julija Baranova: 1030250
Lynx video adverts from psychoanalytical theory
For this part of the collaborative blog I
will be exploring several Lynx video advertisements for male antiperspirant
products from the psychoanalytical theory perspective, focusing on the gaze, fantasy
and sexuality in particular.
After researching different types of media
that could relate to psychoanalysis, I came across Lynx advertisements on the
television. I thought these adverts are perfect for this particular subject as
they fit perfectly with the criteria of the gaze, sexuality and fantasy. I could not agree more with the writing of
Sturken and Cartwright (2000, pp. 217) on the
subject of advertising and how it relates to Lacans theory of the mirror effect,
It is an essential
element of advertising that it promises to us an abstract world which we will
never experience. When John Berger wrote that advertising is always situated in
the future, he was referring to the way in which the present is depicted in
advertising as lacking in some way. Here, it is helpful for us to return to the
psychoanalytic theory of Jacques Lacan. He suggests that desire and lack are
central motivating forces in our lives. Out lives are structured by a sense of
lack from the moment that we recognize that we are separate entities from our
mothers. This separation, experienced as a splitting, marks the point from
which we recognize ourselves as subjects apart from others. We are always
searching to return to some state of wholeness that we believe we once had
prior to this moment of recognition. We
constantly strive, through relationships activities like consuming products, to
fill that lack. All of the Lynx video adverts seem to
suggest that a subject’s life will be complete with a beautiful woman by their
side after using the product.
First of all I will be analyzing the AXE
effect advert, this particular video takes place on an island, which is
portrayed as a utopia for male subjects, as the island is filled with beautiful
women from different ethnic backgrounds (fig. 1 and fig.2) wearing very little
and showing a lot of skin. It is clear that an exotic vibe has been purposely
created to make the consumer more interested in a product. As Sturken and
Cartwright (2000, pp. 105) state, …to establish
exoticism and enact Orientalism can also be seen in contemporary advertising,
where products are often sold through ads that attach notions of exoticism to
their products through images of places that are coded as distant and
elsewhere. It is also apparent that this advert seeks to appeal to male audiences
by stereotyping various female ethnicities as being exotic and different. Which
leads on to the topic of fantasy and the way this advert intends on leading the
male viewers unconscious mind into a state of fantasy and desire in order to
sell their product. Evans and Hall (1999, pp. 356) quote, Freud saw the model
of fantasy as being, Laplanche and Pontalis (1968:13) suggest, ‘the reverie,
that form a novelette, bot stereotyped and infinitely variable, which the
subject composes and relates to himself in a waking state’. Once the subject starts to desire and
fantasies about being the male in that particular advert (fig.3), he will want
to feel fulfillment of that desire and in order to do so he will have to
purchase the product.
(Unknown, 2010, fig. 1)
(Unknown, 2010, fig. 2)
(Unknown, 2010, fig. 3)
The second video that I will be analyzing
is Pull Gently this advert takes place on a private jet plane whose passengers
are only male (fig.4) with one attractive female stewardess (fig.5) showing the
instructions on how to undo a bra instead of the standard health and safety
procedure. This advert particularly touches up on psychoanalytical theory of
the Gaze, in this scenario male is the spectator as he is the ideal subject and
female stewardess is just an object of spectators gaze. The video clearly shows
the way passengers hold a possessive male gaze while the stewardess is being
subtly seductive when interacting with a bra. As Mirzoeff (2002, pp. 391)
points out, the male position was the privileged place from which to look,
while the female place was simply to be looked at.
One might question the reason why the
stewardess is instructing male passengers on bra techniques, when the
advertisement is aiming to sell an antiperspirant. The answer to such question
is quite simple, in this day and age male audience don’t need a connection
between the imagery and product itself, it’s the pleasure of being shown a
desire and sexuality that matters most.
Levine (1990) writes,
More noticeable and already well established is
the trend in advertising toward reflecting contemporary attitudes toward sex
roles. Advertisements today
frequently picture women as sexual aggressors, or at least equal sparring
partners, rather than available sex objects. And fantasy can be most potent
when least pornographic.
Europeans also have a far higher
tolerance for erotic imagery, even when it has no apparent connection to the
advertised product.
Despite this text being published
twenty-two years ago, these videos support such statement and show that the
same rules still apply in advertising today in term of the footage not having
the connection to product. However the mentality of women being portrayed as
sex objects has progressed towards a negative side, as females are objectified
more often for the advantage of successful advertising business. Sturken and
Cartwright (2000, pp. 196) highlight such
change, an older concern for saving gave way to a new emphasis on spending and
on imagining that the path to betterment was through the increase acquisition
of good. In the changing culture, the feeling that life was often troubling and
overwhelming prevailed. As a result, the idea that everyone was potentially
inadequate and in need of improvement took hold.
(Unknown, 2011, fig. 4)
(Unknown, 2011, fig. 5)
The last advertisement video I will be
exploring is Even angels will fall, in this video a regular male appears to
have a girlfriend who is an angel (fig.6), as a female she is portrayed to be
beautiful, innocent yet clumsy at some points. Towards the end of an advert
viewer is shown a scene where both of them are in the bathroom, male subject
sprays himself with the antiperspirant and another angel (fig.7) falls into the
apartment. Such scenario could only appear in someone’s fantasies and desires,
yet again the advertisement is seducing male subjects mind in to wishing for
similar lifestyle. As Brenner (2003) writes, like Freud and the psycho-analytic
view of fantasy, the modern media representation of the genre fantasy is also
deeply rooted in fantasy as desire, an escape from reality through an imaginary
scene representing the fulfillment of a wish. The advertisement business tries
to trick male subject’s into fantasizing about unrealistic events, purchasing
their product while unconsciously thinking they could get at least a few steps
closer to being the lucky male on the television screens.
This particular advertisement also aims at
those males who may be single or in an unhappy relationship, as previously
mentioned Lacan’s theory of the mirror effect is also applicable in this case.
As males that lack female attention or certain traits their mother has that
they unconsciously want to see in their partner, it is easy to assume that they
would be looking to fill such void by purchasing the product and hoping to feel
satisfied with bot product and their life. As Sturken and Cartwright (2000, pp.
213) point out, …this relates to the therapeutic ideology that ads participate
in when they promise to improve our lives. In speaking to the viewers/consumers
about changing themselves, they are always interpellating consumers as in some
way dissatisfied – with their lifestyle, appearance, jobs, relationships, etc.
Many ads imply that their product can alleviate this state of dissatisfaction.
(Unknown, 2011, fig. 6)
(Unknown, 2011, fig. 7)
To conclude, after researching several Lynx
video advertisements among the psychoanalytical theory subjects such as the
gaze, fantasy and sexuality, it is apparent that advertising businesses use
psychoanalysis to stimulate subjects unconscious mind towards purchasing a
certain product even if the footage of an advert has no direct link to what is
being sold. In todays advertising industry, sexuality seems to sell there fore
women are being objectified while male gaze stays possessive towards sexually
presented females in the advertisements. I believe that in the future we will
not see much of a change in this business.
Word Count: 1406
Bibliography:
Evans, J., Hall, S., 1999. Visual Culture: The Reader. Unknown: SAGE
Publications Ltd.
Mirzoeff, N., 2002. The Visual Culture Reader. 2nd ed. London: Routledge.
Sturken, M., Cartwright, L., 2000. Practices of Looking: An Introduction to
Visual Culture. Oxford: OUP Oxford.
Levine, J., 1990. Fantasy, no flesh. Unknown, [e-journal] 145 (2), Available through: Business source
complete [Accessed 20 April 2012].
The University of Chicago, 2003. Fantasy. [online] Available at: < http://csmt.uchicago.edu/glossary2004/fantasy.htm>
[Accessed 16 March 2012].
AdScientist44, 2010.AXE “BILLIONS” WORLDWIDE COMMERCIAL. [video online] Available at:
< http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=43kWidygD9g>
[Accessed 20 April 2012].
Thelynxeffect, 2011. Lynx Jet- Pull Gently. [video online] Available at: < http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SsI0M3mFh_Y>
[Accessed 20 April 2012].
Thelynxeffect, 2011. Lynx Excite TV Advert – Even Angels Will Fall. [video online] Available
at: <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EfeVEAZkJqM>
[Accessed 20 April 2012].
Jerome Rand: 1033334
A Freudism Analysis of Facebook Photography
For this group blog I will be analyzing a variety of
Facebook profiles pictures and the reason as to why they were chosen as representation
of that person’s self from the outlook of freudism. For privacy reasons I shall
keep the identity of each person in these photographs anonymous by referring to
them as (Fig.1), (Fig.2) and (Fig.3).
The Freudism theory of personality is separated up
into three different parts, part one is the ‘Id’ is based on the principle of
pleasure its purpose is that it is the part of unconscious mind. It disciplines
our drives, instincts, compulsions and urges. Freud felt that an infant is the purest, most unblemished form of
‘Id’, demanding instant diligence to have the basic of functional needs, i.e. changing of clothes
and nourishment etc fulfilling biological urges without thought for others.
Part two is the ‘Ego’ it’s fundamentally based on reality, the
purpose of it is whilst conscious is that is has authority over the functions
of the ‘Id’. The ‘Ego’ is receptive to the demands of the ‘Id’, though it
comprehends the key factors such as regard for others, this may elongate
satisfaction; focusing on direct satisfaction, yet the ‘Ego’ focuses on a
realistic sense of satisfaction.
Interacting and learning from the external surroundings is the
‘Superego’ the last part of the personality. When the ‘Ego’ meets obstacles the
‘Superego’ develops in relieving the ‘Id’. The formation of this function is
that it has ethical values and moral restrictions. Deciding what’s right and
wrong in the socially approved whilst suppressing the ‘Id’, if desires and
needs are conflicting with socially accepted notions. The ‘Superego’ restricts
the appeasing of the ‘Id’; the ‘Ego’ may conceal the Id’s need into the
unconscious state of mind in order to avoid internal conflict.
Looking at these different parts of Freud’s theory of
personality I will use this to give me more understanding of the three Facebook
profile pictures I chose at random to analyze. In today’s
vastly growing social networks i.e. Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr etc. What
separates us from these other people on these networking sites is personality,
though what makes this differentiated fundamental is that we are influenced by
different things thus creating personality; basically a sense of self. For
example how we show our hair, face and clothes is all influenced.
“As
children experience the demands and constraints of reality, a new structure of
personality emerges- the ego, the Freudian structure of personality that deals
with the demands of reality. The ego is called the executive branch of
personality because it uses reasoning to make decisions.” (Essortment, 2011)
When uploading pictures on to Facebook accounts people use ‘the
ego’ as Freud says to make decisions as to what they wish to show. However their
personality affects this by how they wish to be preserved in their mind by
others.
Firstly looking at (Fig.1) she has shown a picture of herself
clearly wearing excessive make-up, artificially tanned skin and wearing
lingerie. Looking closer at the reason as to why she chose to use this
photograph to portray herself;
“Freud
believed that the mind was either in a state of consciousness or
unconsciousness. Consciousness is an awareness of perceptions, memories,
thoughts, fantasies and feelings.” (Strehlow, 2011)
(Facebook, 2011, Fig.1)
Conscious
of her decisions (Fig.1) took this photograph in a conscious state, so she was
perfectly aware of the photographs perception for she may of felt this was
beautiful. Though her idea of beauty is influenced clearly by popular culture, (Fig.1)
is aware that she is only demonstrating herself wearing a bra in this
photograph also exposing her cleavage. To any person looking at his photograph they
would interpret this as provocative, for she chose to expose herself like this.
(Fig.1)’s ‘Id’ makes her ‘Ego’ perceive herself in
this perspective for her biological urges are what’s taking over her views of
what’s she deems beautiful and socially attractive.
The ‘Superego’ decides what’s right and wrong, in
what’s socially acceptable whilst suppressing the ‘Id’. Clearly she feels that
in order to be socially wanted she has to expose herself in such ways. Though
it’s wrong for (Fig.1) to claim acceptance in this unnecessary way. (Fig.1)’s
‘Id’ wants to feel beautiful and accepted by society, fulfilling her biological
needs. However the ‘Ego’ elongates these needs, while the ‘Superego’ tries to
rationalise them by searching into societies popular culture; where sex and
beauty is flaunted in a particularly indulgent and promiscuous manor.
(Fig.2) is an ambiguous photo; it demonstrates the
woman’s body language is content and quirky, however looking deeper into her
eyes, and how her jumper hangs to one side with carelessness, it also reads as
a melancholic photograph.
Storey (2009,pp.93) writes that First, we are born
with an id, while the ego develops through contact with culture, which in turn
produces the super-ego. In other words, our ‘nature’ is governed (sometimes
successfully, sometimes not) by culture. What is called ‘human nature’ is not
something ‘essentially’ natural, but the governance of our nature by culture.
This means that human nature is not something innate and unchangeable, it is
something at least in part introduced from outside.
(Facebook, 2010, Fig.2)
Freud says our nature isn’t always
successful on the path in culture e.g. society, the environment. It seems that
(Fig. 2) has had such a variety of untamed experiences, which resulted in
shaping her unconscious resulting in her absence of identity. Therefore she
thinks through society she is happy, however because she has been filled with
so many social and environmental changes she can’t find her true self, to be
internally content. The conflicting thoughts of (Fig.2) thinking she is happy
yet subconsciously she is not, perhaps because of an imbalance in the
‘Superego’ dominating the ‘Id’.
(Fig.2)’s ‘Ego’ is demonstrated in a
rough, blissful way; it is almost alluring, but this is shadowed by the obvious
pain in her eyes; this is typical of Indie pop culture. When looking closely at
her facial expressions, she’s smiling but not completely; which indicates, not
only how she feels, but also who she is; which is happy, but not completely,
which is sad, but not completely; basically incomplete.
This indicates (Fig.2)’s ‘Id’ is
suppressed to the unconsciousness; the ego has taken over giving a sense of
happiness. However the ‘Superego’ recognises that the ‘Id’ is confused which
has subsequently surfaced through her facial expressions.
Lastly (Fig. 3), shows a stigmatised
gang cultured photograph. The stance that he is holding is passive aggressive.
The fact that he is wearing sun glasses over his eyes, almost indicates he
doesn’t want to give away all of his identity, on the other hand, this could be
an imitation of what he considers to be, socially likeable and acceptable.
Storey (2009,pp.93) writes that the
essence of repression’, according to Freud, ‘lies simply in turning something
away, and keeping it at a distance, from the conscious’. In this way, then, we
could say that repression is a special form of amnesia; it removes all the
things with which we cannot or will not deal. But Freud (1985) makes clear, we
may have repressed these things, but they have not really gone away: ‘Actually
to be a renunciation is really the formation of the substitute or
surrogate.
(Facebook, 2009, Fig.3)
Freud says the renunciation is the formation of the
surrogate therefore (Fig.3) has encased his ‘Id’ within this stereotypical gang
culture. He has accepted what society expects of him consciously acting on this
façade that pop culture has influenced him forcing him to embrace this new
‘Superego’.
The ‘Ego’ of (Fig.3) is executed with him dressed in
clothes with a variety of logos on them which really are just labels of
clothing, though the very clothes he wears portrays the vey man he has become
which is labelled by society but manipulated into thinking its socially
appealing.
The ‘Superego’ has used the sunglasses to hide
inevitable conflict between his ‘Id’ and his ‘Ego’, to be socially conforming
to what’s acceptable within this stereotype he has embodied.
To conclude learning about the freudism theory of
personality it has shown me that the human mind and its conditions can be
drastically altered. If a person’s influence of their surroundings is
impressionable enough to effect or even change them temporarily or
permanently. Using Freud’s theory on
these particular individuals it has given me a vast insight as to how Freud’s
theory can apply to different people of different mindsets, by using Freud’s
three parts of the psyche The ‘Id’, ‘Ego’ and ‘Superego’.
From writing this essay it has made me think of my own
‘Id’, ‘Ego’ and ‘Superego’, and how my influences and surroundings have
affected me past, present and will in the future; So this has really given me a
lot to contemplate about myself and the workings of my unconscious and
conscious state of mind, but most of all how I perceive myself and how others
perceive me to be.
Overall learning about Freud’s theory of personality
it has changed my outlook on the way I read people and their decisions, of how
they approach their sense of self as to come to a result of what they chose to
expose of themselves photographically on Facebook as there profile photograph
and in real world.
Bibliography
Engler, B.,
2009. Personality Theories. 8th ed. Boston: Houghton Miffin Harcourt
Publishing Company.
Storey, J.,
2009. Cultural Theory and Popular Culture An Introduction. 5th
ed.Harlow: Pearson Education Limited.
Fig.1,
2011.Profile Pictures. [online] Available at:
<http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10150411905314037&set=a.427711074036.222165.730994036&type=3&theater>
[Accessed 21 April 2012].
Fig.2,
2010.Profile Pictures. [online]
Available at: <http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=449931271211&set=a.461802011211.257451.528211211&type=1&theater>
[Accessed 17th April 2012].
Fig.3, 2009,
Profile Pictures, [online] Available at:
<http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=239335103915&set=a.487575183915.265745.513613915&type=3&theater>
[Accessed 17th April 2012].
Essortment,
2011. Freud's
Personality Theory. [online] Available at: <http://www.essortment.com/freuds-personality-theory-21639.html> [Accessed 17th April 2012].
Strehlow,J.,2011.Three-Stage
Model of Personality Development, eHow, [online] Available at:
<http://www.ehow.com/info_10002734_threestage-model-personality-development.html> [Accessed 17th April 2012].
Word Count: 1544
Samantha Sleger: 1004632
Understanding Media – Freud,
Stezaker and The Uncanny
John Stezaker is an artist who
works mostly with found imagery; he creates other his pieces using a variety of
pictures juxtaposed onto one another to make a new image. Stezaker not only
cuts existing pictures but changes the way existing ones may be viewed for
example by rotating them. His work is contemporary but has been linked to Surrealism
just because of the way he presents the subject matter, this links to Freud and
his idea of ‘The Uncanny’, what can be perceived as fear-provoking. The work
discussed here is from a variety of collections spanning thirty years chosen
due to the different content and ideas.
The term ‘The Uncanny’ is often
used in description of Stezaker’s pieces and Freud studied this, linking his
work to psychoanalysis. Freud describes the uncanny as ‘related to what is
frightening – to what arouses dread and horror... it tends to coincide with
whatever excites fear in general’ (1985, p. 339). Freud was exploring into
aesthetics which what he believed ‘concerned themselves with the beautiful,
attractive and sublime’ (1985, p. 339). With Stezaker’s work ‘Love’, he takes
images of what could be considered to be beautiful people and layers other
images on top. The end result is people with extra eyes or strangely morphed
features. Stezaker has taken the imagery onto a level like Freud’s aesthetics
and changed the faces to physically represent the uncanny. Stezaker’s piece
‘Love X, 2006’ shows a beautiful woman but she has had her eyes changed by
Stezaker’s replications. This completely distorts her image, making her look
not like the timeless beauty she is but possibly ugly, something on the verge
of the content of nightmares, it’s the reality of her face that has changed, we
know what she should look like but these modifications make it hard to relate
to.
In Freud’s work, the uncanny or
‘unheimlich’ is translated from German to English to literally mean the
‘unhomely’ (1985, p. 339). It is uncomfortable and unfamiliar which when we
look at some of Stezaker’s collections and we can appreciate this, it is more
profound with any series focusing on faces. Humans identify with people’s
faces, particularly the eyes which in Stezaker’s collections such as Marriage
or Love are almost deformed into some new kind of portrait. In many of his
marriage images, the use of two images running alongside one another to make a
new face such as ‘She (Film Portrait Collage) XI, 2008. This image uses two
female faces both which could be considered to be attractive but the different
profiles of each portrait means the
viewer has to really consider what Stezaker is trying to achieve as we
recognise it as an almost deformed face or try to mirror each picture to make
two whole faces. Stezaker, when questioned as to why he didn’t shoot images so
that the married pieces were inline correctly replied that ‘The ‘Marriage’
pieces have nothing to do with the marriage, the matching of items, they are to
do with the fact that they do not marry, and that is the point.’ (2011, p. 39)
He makes it so that the viewer has to make a connection with the images and why
he put them together.
Stezaker has been creating pieces
for around forty years that push the viewers understanding, his methods of
photo montage and collage create new identities, new realities. The work he
creates means that ‘the beholder has to participate in the meaning’ (Stezaker,
2011, p.39) making the audience become involved in the images and ask what
message is being said. He uses found imagery such as postcards, film stills,
books or magazine illustrations and collages them in a way that the end result
is contradictory; the work can be seen as both beautiful and grotesque. At
times, by pasting, cutting or even rotating images, the viewer is lead into a
new dimension, partly wondering how the subject may have looked before these
alterations and partly why Stezaker used the images as modifications that he
has done. The piece ‘Untitled’ from 1977 is found imagery showing a couple sat
at a piano. The image the right way up shows the man playing the piano with the
woman looking on in admiration, but the way Stezaker presents it to us means
the woman’s reflection with both of her eyes now being seen almost makes her
look like she’s in control and the man is playing for her not to her. It was
this idea that Stezaker liked because it makes the piece mysterious and the
audience now looks at what the relationship between the people in his selected
work.
Stezaker has created a huge body
of work, all with different ideas and outcomes; I like all of his work and was
first introduced to it last year at the Whitechapel Gallery. I think the way
Stezaker amalgamates seemingly meaningless images of landscapes or film stars
time has forgotten and makes something new draws the viewer in, curiosity makes
us ask why he done this. Stezaker sometimes uses harsh, dramatically cut pieces
pasted together creating lines across his work, it makes your eyes sweep across
the image to try and make sense of it. Although with some of his pieces such as
‘Enter... (Exit)... The Third Person’ (1977) he places repeated imagery on top
of itself, parts of the picture is replicated but we can never see the whole
image. It is this technique that adds to the audience asking for more clues
therefore completing his idea that we have to find the meaning.
Stezaker’s work verges on the
surreal, like the masters of this movement from the past; he takes what is and
merges it to create a new world, a new reality. His collections such as Masks,
Silhouettes and Marriage link this idea of an alternate reality, the viewer
asks but why has this been done. There is a piece by Dali that is called
‘Communication: Paranoiac Face’ (1935) which is part of his work using two
different themes in one piece to make a double meaning. This work can be linked
to his Mask series which it can be seen that the faces are replaced by postcard
landscapes which hold features that could represent this persons faces and
symbolise something to represent the person themselves. With the Dali painting,
it is striking to see how this can be related to Stezaker’s work but instead of
another image placed on top, Dali has made the face out of features in the
landscape. Stezaker likes to use things that can be seen as obsolete using
objects that by one person can be seen as old and out of date but Stezaker uses
these to create something new. This is apparent with all of his collages
because he uses found imagery from times past, people whose looks have faded
and gone but he revitalises these by placing other images in the piece.
Stezaker’s influences have
changed throughout over the near 40 years he’s been practising. He was
influenced by a range of artists including Keith Arnhaft, John Murphy and later
Joseph Cornell. It was Cornell’s whose work really interested him, Cornell’s
show at the Whitechapel in 1981 make Stezaker contemplate how he really related
to images. He didn’t consider Cornell’s work to be linked to Surrealism as such
but he was inspired to then follow hi s visual fascinations that then ‘became
illegible, mysterious, at which they touch on another world’ (Stezaker, 2011, p
37). Stezaker also uses Roland Barthes’ idea of how people will read the image
in years to come, this is because he concerned himself with the idea that ‘it
is not possible to create new images anymore, the only option is to appropriate
existing ones’ (Stezaker, 2011, p.38) which basically describes what Stezaker
does. Barthes’ also spoke about how people read the ‘text’ or in this case the
images in front of them, which is what Stezaker concerns himself with
concerning his work, he thinks about ‘legibility’ and what the reader can make
of the image but in some ways that is different as individuals will all have
different ways of seeing the same piece of work. In Stezaker’s piece ‘Mask X’
(1982) we see what we can conclude is an acrobatic girl from the rope ladders
around her and her glittering costume. Where her face should be is actually a
river landscape with a bridge which could mimic eyes. Stezaker creates these
images, blinding the subjects and hiding their common features, he only reveals
to us a certain amount of what he wants us to see and to distinguish from the
chosen postcards how we would expect a the face to look due to the misleading
features of the landscapes. Talking about how masks can be seen as horror
arousing because we do not know what is underneath them, ‘this is how we
experience the face as uncanny’ (Stezaker, 2011, p. 43), it also could be seen
to identify humans with the world around us, the two together. By blindfolding
that person and taking away what we can identify with the most he makes these
portraits that conform to Freud’s idea of the uncanny and being unfamiliar.
In all of his work, Stezaker
challenges us to question what we really see. His work is interesting and
striking in its own right, even if it is just looked at for what it is a
collage. The idea that Stezaker wants the audience to truly look at the work
and decide what they want from it is what makes his pieces different. Relating
to the uncanny, Stezaker takes what we see as normal making it mysterious which
is indeed unfamiliar to us, his work should be enjoyed for whatever assumption
the audience can make whilst viewing it.
Bibliography:
Appignanesi, R. / Zarate, O.
(1992) Freud for Beginners, Cambridge: Cavendish House
Bonn, W. (2002) The Rise of
Surrealism, Albany: State of New York Press
Craib, I. (1994) The Importance
of Disappointment, London: Routledge
Cultural Theory and Popular
Culture, (2009) Available at: http://www.scribd.com/doc/36058283/Cultural-Theory-and-Popular-Culture
(Accessed 5th April 2012)
Freud, S. / Dickson, A. (1985)
Sigmund Freud Volume 14: Art and Literature, London: Penguin Books
Rand, N. / Torok, M. (1997)
Questions for Freud, The Secret History of Psychoanalysis, London: Harvard
University Press
Stezaker, J. / Ades, D.
/Bracewell, M. (2011) John Stezaker, Ridinghouse, Whitechapel Gallery
Walberg, P. (1965) Surrealism,
London: Thames Hudson
Images:
Stezaker Images from ‘John
Stezaker, 2011’:
Untitled, 1977: p.7
Enter...(Exit)...the Third Person, 1977: p.64
Mask x, 1982: p.79
She(Film Portrait Collage)xi, 2008: p.132
Love x, 2006: p.138
Dali Image: http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?q=dali+communication+paranoiac+face,
(Accessed: 5th April 2012)
Salvador Dali: Communication: Paranoiac Face, 1935
Love x, 2006
She(Film Portrait
Collage)xi, 2008
Untitled, 1977
Enter...(Exit)... The Third Person, 1977
Mask x, 1982
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