Lorna Simpson

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Lorna Simpson in April 2009

Lorna Simpson (born August 13, 1960 in Brooklyn , New York City ) is an American photographer , concept and video artist .

Career

Lorna Simpson received her bachelor's degree from the School of Visual Arts (initially painting, then photography) in New York in 1983 and her master's degree in 1985 from the University of California, San Diego . She studied with Allan Kaprow , the performance artist Eleanor Antin , with the filmmakers Babette Mangolte and Jean-Pierre Gorin and the poet David Antin. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband, photographer James Casebere, and their daughter.

After completing her studies, Lorna Simpson traveled to New York, Europe and Africa and devoted herself to street photography . She also worked with serial images and found material such as pin-ups or magazines. In the mid-1980s, the first known, large-format black and white or cautiously colored photographs were created , which are combined with text fragments. It is characteristic that her photographic works consist of several, individually framed photos that are hung up serially, as parts of a picture motif or later as an installation , such as Please remind me of who I am (2009). The open relationship between photos and words creates an interaction that adds another level of meaning to the image.

Simpsons photo models are shot in the photo studio in excerpts without a head or with their faces turned away or covered . "Waterbearer / Wasserträger" from 1986 ( gelatin silver print with foil lettering) is an example of this.

In 1990 Lorna Simpson was the first African American woman to be invited to participate in the Venice Biennale . She addresses identity, gender roles and ethnicity by using the figure of the African American to challenge and question the conventional point of view.

Simpson has been making films since the mid-1990s. The film "Interior / Exterior, Full / Empty" is narrative and stylistically based on the film noir . One of the first short films is "Call Waiting" (1997). The actors in her recordings are women and men who are not white.

For the photo series “May, June, July, August '57 / '09 # 8” (2009), Simpson poses in front of the camera based on the example of the pin-ups of the 1950s.

You're Fine, You're Hired / You're Fine, You're Hired (1988)

You're Fine, You're Hired are four Polaroid prints framed in wood . You can see the back view of an African American woman lying on her side, wearing a simple, white, half-length cotton shirt. To the left of this there are various words such as “blood test”, “lung capacity” or “electrocardiogram / electrocardiogram ”, and to the right the words “secretarial and position / secretary ”. Above the photos you can see the words "You´re Fine / Es ist Dir gut" and underneath "You´re Hired / You are set". On the one hand, the work refers to medical tests that can be requested by the potential employer before an employment contract is concluded. On the other hand, the work refers to the so-called "casting couch / casting couch ", so the job commitment following rendered sexual services by a healthy woman.

Five Day Forecast (1991)

The photo work Five Day Forecast consists of five large-format photos placed side by side. It shows a woman's body with no head and no legs. The arms are crossed and fold the white, quite large cotton shirt. Above the photos, i.e. where the head could be, there are five signs with the days of the week from Monday to Friday. Under the photos, where the legs could be shown, there are ten signs that read from left to right: “Misdescription”, “Misinformation / misinformation”, “Misidentify”, “Misdiagnosis / Misdiagnosis "," misfunction / malfunction "," mistranscribe / incorrectly circumscribed "," misremember / memory error "," misgauge / measurement error "," misconstrue / misconstruction "and" mistranslate / incorrect translation ".

Filmography (selection)

Call Waiting (1997)

One of Lorna Simpson's first short films is Call Waiting (1997). Several young people ( blacks , Asians and Latinos ) talk to each other on the phone and are interrupted by other phone calls, which in turn are disturbed by phone calls. All those involved are intertwined in this network in an emotional or intimate way and become increasingly entangled in misunderstandings, fraud and frustration.

Easy to Remember (2001)

Close-ups of lips, five on top of each other and three next to each other, hum a bittersweet song ( Easy to Remember ), which was sung by John Coltrane in 1962 and tells of lost love and memories. The 16 mm film format was used, the recording was then transformed to video and subsequently digitally processed.

Corridor (2003)

The film Corridor (2003) juxtaposes the life situations of two Afro-American women. On the left you can see the portrait of a woman who is dressed in a simple cotton dress , white apron and turban like a slave or servant in a mansion at the time of the American Civil War . On the right is an American housewife today. Wangechi Mutu embodies both roles .

Exhibitions (selection)

Solo exhibitions

Group exhibitions

Awards (selection)

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Documenta11 Platform5: Exhibition. Catalog; Ostfildern-Ruit 2002 ISBN 3-7757-9085-3 (German) page 212
  2. ↑ The New York Times, Holland Cotter exploring Identity as a Problematic Condition, accessed June 21, 2015
  3. ↑ a b c The city review, Michele Leight, The Photographic and Film / Video Art of Lorna Simpson .
  4. ↑ ArtMag, Cheryl Kaplan It's interesting to be uncertain accessed on June 21, 2015
  5. ^ Haus der Kunst Lorna Simpson. Retrieved June 21, 2015
  6. ↑ Walker Art, Excerpt of Interview with Lorna Simpson by Siri Engberg and Sarah Cook Scenarios: Recent work by Lorna Simpson ( Memento from June 21, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) accessed on June 21, 2015
  7. ^ MoMA The collection Lorna Simpson. Retrieved June 21, 2015
  8. ^ Tate Five Day Forecast 1991 accessed on June 21, 2015
  9. ↑ Encyclopaedia Britannica, Anthony G. Craine Lorna Simpson American photographer accessed June 21, 2015 (English)
  10. ↑ The Baltimore Sun, Glenn McNatt Much to learn from Lorna Simpson's lips, accessed on June 17, 2015.
  11. ↑ artfacts Lorna Simpson accessed on June 17, 2015 (English)
  12. ^ Lorna Simpson , accessed June 21, 2015.
  13. ↑ nationalacademy.org: Living Academicians "S" / Simpson, Lorna, NA 2013 ( Memento of March 20, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) (accessed on July 15, 2015)
  14. ^ American Academy of Arts and Sciences : Newly Elected Fellows. In: amacad.org. Retrieved April 22, 2016 .
personal data
SURNAME Simpson, Lorna
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American photographer, concept and video artist
DATE OF BIRTH August 13, 1960
PLACE OF BIRTH Brooklyn , New York City