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116 – Qui êtes vous Molly Maggoo? One of a series of images with the theme 'girls on film' (prompted by the 1980 Duran Duran hit, although their content has virtually nothing to do with those lyrics) which span a variety of silver gelatin and digital formats. Here I am elevating the physical form of the photographic image itself to artefact; think Marshall McLuhan The Medium is the Massage 1967; think Joe Tilson and Diapositive or Transparency, Clip-o-Matic Lips, the Five Senses: Taste et al 1967-9. 45 x 30 cm on A3+ limited to 50 signed giclée prints Details of alternative sizes on request Gallery | girls on film | pop goes the pixel | paint shop | montage |
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The title and content reflect the impact that William Klein’s 1966 film had on me. Qui êtes vous, Polly Maggoo? starring Dorothy McGowan, was a seminal period work; it did for make-up what Allen Jones did for shoes; it made make-up iconic and kitsch, ripe for examination, a subject for art, and it definitely got me out of the closet. This image makes considerable reference to scenes in Klein's film. Polly had a collage in her Paris appartement; the one in the middle frame was in my studio in the sixties. The optical art target features in the film as the emblem of Prince Igor's House of Borodine; 'op art' hails from the 60s and targets were often used by pop artists too. (In the titles and subtitles for the film, designed by Klein himself, the spelling is Maggoo but on the in-shot clapper board, it is Magoo.) The film searches for the real Polly; "Your life is a masquerade"; "That girl wears a mask. What's behind it?". In my image, the subtitle reads "Va chercher la vérité sous le maquillage". The hidden text reads: "… un symbole d’élégance et de sophistication. J’ai l’impression que tout ça signifie un jeu. Vous jouez. Votre vie de mannequin est un mascarade. Vous jouez et les autres vous aident à jouer. La Bonne Fée vous a frappé …" During my career, I have worked with a broad range of film media, from the smallest movie stock to 5x4 sheet film. Here three monochrome stills, shot on a medium format camera, are presented as if on 35mm movie colour comopt print stock – except that movie film would not normally have three radically different frames in succession. I don't know if Klein shot on 35mm – he probably did – but from the grotty print I saw, it could have been on 16mm! © Colin Robinson 1960-2006 |
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