Eileen
Cowin (published by Gallery Min, 1987)
REAL IMAGES OF AN ILLUSORY WORLD
by Mark Johnstone
The photographs by Eileen Cowin symbolically explore interpersonal
relationships between people. The basis for her current work dates
to 1978 when she
began to create and direct imaginary scenarios of domestic life. These pieces
depicted aspects of relationships occurring between and among people—including
moments of terse confrontation, sibling rivalry, romantic interlude,
and mundane daily chores—which were either depicted alone or
humorously blended
together. The emotional or psychological feelings stimulated by these images
are
largely generated by the visual devices of gesture or pose that Cowin
incorporates into the photographs.
There are numerous precedents or parallels for Cowin’s
approach within
the continuum of art, from historical tableaux vivant paintings to contemporary
media such as cinema or television. Thematic similarities between Cowin’s
photographs and specific paintings are intentional; these parallels
are not exclusively formal, but an engagement of the indescribable
and elusive movements that have been present, yet are frequently hidden
or submerged, within human life throughout recorded time. They may
be forms of awakening in the human spirit or soul, as can be described
through words like “redemption,” “corruption,” “salvation,” and “grace”.
These particular concepts have deep and
resonant symbolic significance within western Judeo-Christian religious tradition,
from the expulsion of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden to that
moment when a
mortal Virgin Mary learns that she has been divinely blessed and is carrying
the Son of God in her womb.
These ancient beliefs have always existed, even while terminology
or
circumstances have shifted and changed. What had traditionally been referred
to
as a human spirit or soul was renamed the “id” in
the modern field of
psychology. Likewise, art changed through the ages and the momentous and stirring
meaning of Masaccio’s “The Expulsion” (1426)
or Fra Angelico’s “The Annunciation” (1455) became replaced with the introspective
studies of Ingres’ “The Bather” (1808) or Edward Hopper’s “Eleven
A.M.” (1926) and “Excursion into
Philosophy” (1959). The painting by Ingres is a highly
eroticized artistic vision
of a moment in an everyday routine; the Hopper paintings, while being no less
sensual, suppress any erotic qualities and address those introspective
moments when an individual feels alone, despite the events and circumstances
of surrounding life. There are also precedents for Cowin’s
fascination with the
dynamics of the family unit, as in Van Eyck’s “The
Arnolfini Wedding” (1434), or
Edgar Degas’ “The Bellini Family” (1860).
Cowin’s works from 1980 to 1983 are primarily
busy scenes of adolescent
children and middle-aged adults, which are provocative as curious moments of
interrupted action. For a period of time she referred to these pieces as
docudramas, a word recently coined to describe cinematic or television recreations
of historical events. A docudrama is a fictional and dramatized version of
real events, and is constructed to appear factual. The circumstances of
contemporary American life in Cowin’s photographs are imaginary,
although the
characters and their expressed emotions may appear familiar. It is worth noting
that
although Cowin has continually portrayed herself in many of the images, they
are not the confessional revelations of an autobiographical diary.
Her photographs are antithetical to the “decisive
moment”, a phrase that
is commonly applied to fleeting scenes which are acrobatically seized from
ongoing life in the real world. Cowin’s images are structured
as a juncture of
implied actions among characters in a manner that is simultaneously specific
and abstract. Interpretation or imaginative recreation of an image is based
on
an apprehension of psychological issues, unlike records of the real world
which can be imagined as part of an ongoing continuum, and they are parts of
a
photographically stilled narrative. They are observations of life which will
be
interpreted differently by different people, based on an individual viewer’s
own life experience.
A transitional period appeared in her work between 1983 and 1984,
as the
complexity of scenes gradually became simplified. Her figures increasingly
assumed more elegant poses, imaged in a moment of stasis that serves to expand
the implications of a pose or gesture. The work progressively changed in other
formal ways which contributed to shifts in content. These new directions
included: a shift from multiple lights to direct single source lighting, an
appearance of older figures in her cast of characters, enlarged image dimensions
(from 20 by 24 inches in 1982 to approximately 4 by 15 feet in 1984), and the
multiple combination of images into a diptych or triptych format.
Cowin’s images probe the emotional, visceral,
and intellectual resonance
of narrative in a photograph. The groupings, which she has formed
specifically for this publication, suggest a loose series of short stories,
or novellas.
The assembly is not chronological, but based around particular themes of
interrelationship between people. Her characters and props are limited, like
the
sparsely staged productions of a small theatrical acting troupe. Particular
objects and environments are repeated such as tables, telephones, beds, and
certain rooms of a home. Romance and struggles within familial boundaries recur,
and intruders or alter egos occasionally materialize.
A range of ideas about human relationships is played out within the
restricted territory of her imagination. A bedroom becomes a private symbolic
ground of intimacy between two people, and the perfunctory circumstances for
food
consumption become celebrated forums for expressive emotional exchanges of
immaterial sustenance. Age-old issues of parenting, aging, privacy, and anger
are occasionally revealed literally as fait accompli. In other images, dreams
or desires are silently inferred as the unspoken relationships expressed
through gesture and body language between people.
The potential of narrative is simply and eloquently illustrated by
the
diversity in her dressing of figures. The different ways that men or women
are
clothed can be a rich and resonant general evocation of culture, or imply
specific rites and rituals within a culture. Cowin’s photographs
cross the
boundaries of time and engage both mythic depiction and tangible aspects of
human
life, as it exists through past, present and future time. Her images will
likely acquire value as sociological interpretations of interpersonal relationships
in the decade of the 1980s, just as similar values can be inferred from 16th
and 17th century Dutch paintings or the 19th century Japanese ukiyo-e woodcuts
of Hiroshige and Hokusai. What can be experienced in them has been mediated
through her vision—they are undeniably real images of an
illusory world. |
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