Lavatory Self-Portraits in the Flemish Style :: artist, Nina Katchadourian
After a sad Super Bowl loss - actually, I'm not into sports, but my husband is a lifelong 49ers fan. It was nice to get a really funny email from a friend this morning with a series of photos that I have to share with you. Completely ridiculous and yet completely brilliant.
Artist, Nina Katchadourian, snapped photos of herself over a 14 hour airplane trip using the lavatory lighting, her handheld phone camera and the props she had available. Inspired by 15th Century Flemish paintings (because.....of course ) she later had them printed and framed in reproduction, historic-looking, gold frames, displaying them against a dark red wall similar to a gallery wall.
I'm hoping most of you will share my complete joy in the absurd and creative. Happy Monday:
"While in the lavatory on a domestic flight in March 2010, I spontaneously put a tissue paper toilet cover seat cover over my head and took a picture in the mirror. The image evoked 15th-century Flemish portraiture. I decided to add more images made in this mode and planned to take advantage of a long-haul flight from San Francisco to Auckland, guessing that there were likely to be long periods of time when no one was using the lavatory on the 14-hour flight. I made several forays to the bathroom from my aisle seat, and by the time we landed I had a large group of new photographs entitled Lavatory Self-Portraits in the Flemish Style. I was wearing a thin black scarf that I sometimes hung up on the wall behind me to create the deep black ground that is typical of these portraits. There is no special illumination in use other than the lavatory's own lights and all the images are shot hand-held with the camera phone. At the Dunedin Public Art gallery, the photos were framed in faux-historical frames and hung on a deep red wall reminiscent of the painting galleries in museums like the Metropolitan Museum of Art. "
