While searching Carlo Mollino’s apartment after his death, searchers found a drawer full of 200 polaroids or more, each picturing women in an explicit poses. None knew about the photos until then. Two of these photos were shown at the Midway during their show, The Secret Life of Objects.
This series of two Polaroids are shown at eye level, framed, and approximately half an inch apart. Pictured on the left is a woman in about her mid-twenties, with shoulder length blonde hair. Scantly posed in a blue dress, her left hand is slowly pulling up the hem, as if to seduce the viewer. Her right hand is placed on the wall behind her with a background of a black curtain with a lacey curtain to the side. The woman pictured on the right is also in her mid-twenties, and has shoulder length blonde hair. She is scantly posed in a revealing black long fringed top, and nude underneath. Her expression is hard to ignore, seducing the viewer/cameraman with all of her being. Both women are wearing the same pair of shoes and against relatively the same background.
I chose to blog about this series because both works intrigued me. They strike me as sleazy fashion photography on the edge of pornography, and left me, as a viewer wanting to know what provoked Mollino to take these photographs. Especially since they weren’t shown or known about to the public until after his death. Even though he was known as a designer and architect before his death, these pieces go further to show that an artist is not truly appreciated for his or her artwork until after his or her death.
Just wondering -- would you like the photos just as much if you didn't know about the mystery of why that guy took those photos of the scantily clad women?
ReplyDeleteI wonder if the pictures would be as good if we knew the real reason behind these. Part of me would still like them, part of me would be sad to know the truth.
Also: Do you think these would be still considered fine art if they were found in his home while he was still alive? Or would it just be creepy?