On being an angel

I may be making flimsy connections here but yesterday, in that Alpha state we all go through before dropping to sleep, in that state of utter clarity and receptiveness, Francesca Woodman’s On being an angel came to my mind and supperimposed itself to Duchamp’s The Bride Stripped Bare By Her Bachelors, Even. (Oh God, that “even” seduces me, it’s driving me mad!)

Think about it: Francesca could be the bride, who has been stripped bare with her open mouth ready to let the milky way and pistons out, and many of the other elements scaterred in the photographic plane (umbrella, shelf…) the bachelors. The chocolate grinder, outside of the composition, may be the sun moving, grinding and the sleith could be that strange piece of equipment on the left hand side (same position as in Duchamp’ work!)

For a quick description of The Bride…‘s main compositional elements see Suquet’s diagramme below:

The two images also share a strange spacial construction, as she is upside down to us and the image is cropped in and cut into sections by the sun… It makes frightful sense to me…

Woodman’s image courtesy of Eva Rus, who wrote this interesting essay about Francesca Woodman