Suellen Parker’s photography exposes the impressionable nature of human psychology through her Plasticine figures
The eyes on the clay sculptures in Suellen Parker’s photographs carry a gaze from within, as if moved by heavy psychological machinery buried deep inside. At times they sparkle with glee, with the anxiety of anticipation gleaming across the room; they can also be obscure, projecting a vivid wall of uncertainty; but above all, every one features a universal characteristic that marries the casual observer to the environment of the photograph: the eyes on every molded figure in these images are real.
As an artist, Parker is hard to categorize since she works in different arenas, but her primary medium is photography. How she achieves the complexity and the environment for each of her compositions, however, is where the other mediums come into play. Drawing from her background as a student of sculpting, Parker begins her artistic process by shaping a lump of Plasticine, a putty-like material that doesn’t dry up, into a humanoid clay figure. At this point, the figures are mere replications of the human anatomy, and although Parker does shape each figure according to the meme of each composition, they do not communicate it on their own.
Once she is satisfied with the mold, and in pursuit of that same compositional meme, Parker does a series of photo portraits, first of the sculptures themselves, and then using human models, collecting an extensive library of human facial expressions that allude to the ever-present psychological processes of the human mind. Using photo-editing software, Parker then takes some of those facial expressions, and digitally applies them to the figures.
In “Awkward”, a piece that is part of her first exhibited collection (titled Incurable), what appears to be a young woman stands with her arms to her sides, her legs slightly bent at the knees, looking out at the distance; her lips feigning a weak smile. It is, as the title very aptly suggests, an awkward stance. The young woman (or the figure of the young woman) has been sculpted to have a slim body type, skinny even, and as such, there’s an indication that the young woman this figure represents may suffer from an eating disorder.
Again, Parker’s artistic process follows the same conceptual trajectory from inception to finished composition, and this is where Parker’s experience is most poignant. She has cited as influences numerous historical and contemporary works of literature, sociology and theater that raise questions about the traditionally perceived notions of identity, beauty, gender and sexuality. What’s revealing in “Awkward” isn’t the figure itself, but rather the environment in which she is presented. The young woman is standing before a gray wall, and she is casting a very faint shadow of a much heavier set body.
The shadow nor the room in which this young woman is presented are part of the sculpture, Parker also takes images from the Internet to complement the meme of her work; processing the overall composition to digitally enhance color and to remove any and all indications that the resulting photograph is a convergence of mediums.
The atmosphere and environment of each photograph is as important as the figures themselves. In “Life Preserver” (up top), what seems to be an elderly woman is standing before a wall-sized poster of a beach. Her right hand is resting firmly on her waist, her body turned slightly to the side, as she faces a camera, seen out of focus near the right edge of the composition. Her eyes convey a sense of firmness, of elegance, almost pride. Over on the left side of the composition, a bed rest is propped up against the lining wall, alluding to the reality that this small room has been converted into a makeshift photography studio.
In “Uplifting Smoke,” another woman is sitting on the doorsteps of a building, smoking a cigarette. She holds a pocket mirror on her left hand, and as she examines her face, the smoke rising from the lit cigarette in her right arm carries the observing eye towards a sign inside the building that reads: “Wellness Center.”
Parker’s images are about people “being looked at” and each one communicates the message with varying degrees of effectiveness. But at the heart of the elegance of her work is the complexity of her artistic process. Her choice of material for creating the figures, for instance, is imperative in two ways: Plasticine is by its nature, malleable, which is a clear metaphor for, not only the way that people’s psychology can be easily influenced by the various messages about beauty and identity in pop culture, but also for the literal altering of one’s body (and skin) through cosmetic surgery. The second way is Plasticine’s natural composition. As opposed to clay used in pottery, for example, Plasticine retains its moisture, giving each figure what resembles a shiny coat of human skin.
In “Glamour Shot,” a man is sitting on a chair, his head resting on a pillow. A pair of hands wearing green surgical gloves is in the process of injecting a substance to the area atop the man’s left eyebrow. (There is no way to identify the substance other than by context, but it is clear that the man is getting a shot of Botox.) His arms are resting on his stomach, one hand on top of the other. In what is a common aspect on all of Parker’s photographs, the man’s eyes project a sense of being in deep thought. In this case, his eyes, though not seemingly focused, make the man appear to be daydreaming as they shine with glee. He smiles broadly.
It’s important to recognize that, although these images offer profound commentary, they do not pass judgment for the subjects within (which could be any one of us). Parker’s work in Incurable, rather, is interested in exploring the contradictory messages about identity that people absorb from the normal course of life; and as the name of the collection alludes to, Parker’s work explores this incurable obsession that people have with image and identity.
This post was a review submitted to my Photography and Social Change class. To see more of Suellen Parker’s work, visit her website, suellenparker.com
