The girlie show
Each of the four female artists in this exhibition photographs her own body in an exploration of gender and identity - a hoary old theme, but one worth revisiting for the seductive photographs of Francesca Woodman.
Woodman died tragically young, hurling herself from the window of her New York apartment in 1981, aged 22. She was a prodigious and precocious talent, and a series of prints from 1972 to 1975 show what might have been had it been nurtured. Her images are derivative of early Modernist photography and carry the stamp of Man Ray.
Nonetheless, they are also compelling, beguiling and disturbing: neither her face or full body are seen, and in one she is obscured behind fragments of wallpaper as if disappearing into walls.
Simryn Gill's features are also obscured, this time behind mounds of vegetation, while her figure is ill-defined as she stands in the midst of an overgrown plot of land.
Meanwhile, Ana Mendieta, a Cuban-born performance artist who was exiled to the US as a child and for whom identity has the added currency of ethnicity, is featured in images that see her sticking facial hair from a male companion on to her face.
Finally, Cindy Sherman, that chief practitioner of disguise, is featured in an early film still and three later images that show her in more grotesque incarnations. Unlike the subtle film stills, these latter images manage to repel the reputed Male Gaze.
After Image is at Victoria Miro, 16 Wharf Road N1 until Jul 31, Tue to Sat 10am to 6pm, free. Tel: 020 7336 8109. Tube: Old Street
After Image: Simryn Gill, Ana Mendieta, Cindy Sherman, Francesca Woodman
