Pollock, G (2017) The missing wit(h)ness: Monroe, fascinance and the unguarded intimacy of being dead. Journal of Visual Art Practice, 16 (3). pp. 265-296. ISSN 1470-2029
Abstract
In 1985 journalist Anthony Summers published a post-mortem photograph of Marilyn Monroe, titling it ‘Marilyn in death’, in his book, Goddess: The Secret Lives of Marilyn Monroe (1985), which investigated the theory that her death was not suicide. The photograph thus acquired forensic significance. My questions are these: Is there an inevitable transgression and even violence in the exposure of an image of a dead woman such as we find in Summers’ and other publications? Under the rubric of this collection, unguarded intimacy, I address a set of paintings made from the morgue photograph of a derelict Marilyn Monroe in the era of feminist ethics by two painters, Margaret Harrison (b.1940) and Marlene Dumas (b. 1953). What are the material and theoretical possibilities of creating feminist e(a)ffects in re-workings of this stolen image if we can distinguish between the forensic notion of the silent witness (the pathologist performing an autopsy whose aftermath this photograph in the morgue indexes) and a concept derived from the Matrixial aesthetics of artist-theorist Bracha Ettinger – aesthetic wit(h)nessing? Can such aesthetic wit(h)nessing deflect the unguarded intimacy of seeing an unattended body in its absolute helplessness by inciting compassion?
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2017 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Journal of Visual Art Practice on 06 Feb 2018, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/14702029.2017.1384912. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy. |
Keywords: | Marilyn Monroe; aesthetic wit(h)nessing; death; feminist fascinance; photography; mourning; compassion; painting; corpse; death |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Cultures (Leeds) > Fine Art, History of Art & Cultural Studies (Leeds) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 07 Sep 2017 14:14 |
Last Modified: | 24 May 2019 12:24 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Taylor and Francis |
Identification Number: | 10.1080/14702029.2017.1384912 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:120953 |