Some thoughts on Joanna Pietrowska’s Jerwood-Photoworks exhibition

By Pauline Rowe, Open Eye Gallery’s Writer in Residence

How do we respond to the gestures and poses of the human body, especially when the body gazed upon is young and female? This is one aspect of provocation in Joanna Pietrowski’s award-winning exhibition (28 Oct – 18 Dec 2016) at Open Eye Gallery and for which she won an inaugural Jerwood-Photoworks award in 2015.

In Gallery One there are four large photographs free standing on white, wooden, portable, wheeled structures (mini billboards), and each image is mounted on uncovered metal with the frame at the back of the photograph. On one side we see framed metal, on the other an unframed black and white image. The metal suggests shadow but does not offer a clear reflection of the observer.

On the first free-standing bill-board there are two teenage girls sitting on a wicker garden sofa, on wooden decking, framed to the right by an evergreen hedge; one of the girls is in a conventional sitting pose, feet to the floor with her face (hidden by her hair) turned towards the second girl who is sitting with her back against the right arm of the sofa, her legs across the first girl’s knees, her head thrown back and her eyes covered by the first girl’s left hand, which is placed in such a way to suggest a pressing down.   Their legs and feet are bare and they are dressed in simple shorts and short-sleeved T-shirts, the first girl in a pale T-shirt, and for the second girl, both garments are black.   The first girl holds the second girl’s right leg at the back of her calf and the second girl’s right arm is placed around the others neck as it reaches to touch the tips of her own left hand. Both bodies are connected and choreographed as though playing some strange version of statues in which the face must not be shown, where no music is played.

The second free-standing photograph is of a different girl lounging on a mattress that is against a wall. Above the figure and adjacent to the mattress is a floating curtain, although we cannot see a window.   Behind the girl is part of a hanging rug and a small framed painting of a parrot. The girl is leaning against a floral cushion in a contorted pose, her right leg bent and right foot underneath her left leg, her left elbow pointing outwards as her arm clutches her body. Her head is tilted to the right and her right arm is bent over her head and holds her own chin. Her eyes are looking down. It is as though she grabs at her own head, as her left arm tries to protect her body. This is not a story. Her gestures are in opposition in the one body. The figure’s pose is so strange one feels compelled to mimick it and no matter how hard I try I can’t do so. Perhaps one must be a girl to accomplish this staged eeriness in the body.

The third fee-standing image reminded me of the spider-walking scene from William Friedkin’s The Exorcist (1973) and is recorded in my notebook as “exorcist girl on patterned paving or driveway (large)”. The image is split into a dark backdrop and light pavement with the girl just off-centre holding herself up, on her right hand and left elbow in the shape of a walking crab with her hair falling to the pavement. Her body is twisted and her left leg bent (foot flat to the ground). We cannot see her right leg as it is covered by her body.

The fourth fee-standing image shows a girl, her long hair loose past her shoulders, sitting at a dining table. Behind her is a wall of cupboards and between the cupboards and the table to her right is an old fashioned standard lamp, its pale drum shade edged with brocade. The girl is facing us but her face is partially covered by her raised right hand, palm facing outwards, fingers slightly curved. We can, perhaps see a sliver of her eye suggesting she can see through her fingers. The lighting throws a close shadow outline of her silhouette just to the right of her frame. The table is covered in a checked table cloth which I imagine is red and white.

On the walls are four different sized images.   On the right hand wall as one goes into Gallery One is a collage of six images of a girl in interior space (a domestic setting) posed in various shapes, one of which shows a girl in pyjamas balancing on one leg leaning over to the left with her right leg in the air and her right hand touching what looks like a television table. There’s a close silhouette shadow cast on the net curtains in front of her. Her left arm is not visible. She must be holding it in to her body.   On the opposite wall is a smaller image of a mature woman standing, pressing her closed, ringed left hand against the girl’s forehead. The woman wears a smug smile and has her eyes closed. We can see just the left profile of her face and her left arm, and the shadows of both. The girl is sitting looks at the woman – we see her in profile. Her small cleavage is visible as she is wearing a sleeveless summer top. We can see the straps of an undergarment too. She may have been out in the sun but this is not a story. She has short bobbed hair and looks as if she is used to punishment.   There is also a much smaller image on the wall facing the gallery entrance of a combination of two pairs of arms and hands.   They seem like children’s arms, and the proximity with the other images suggests the arms of girls. They could have been engaged in a game of arm wrestling as the arms to the left are joined by hands, left hand over right and the arms to the right are holding the other girl, one hand holding her opponent by the wrist and the other hand holding lower down the arm. It is oppositional and strange to see limbs in such relation. The final image in this exhibition shows two girls outside by a pond, one is lying down and the other stands over her. There is a suggestion of domination and submission, power and violence and a sense of stagnancy in the backdrop of the pond.

These strange and difficult images resist narrative. They are theatrical stagings of still moments of conflict that illustrate power relationships. They present the vulnerabilities and difficulties of young female bodies and make us as observers implicit in the power relations they depict. They make poses in domestic settings that have a museum feel about them. Just beneath the surface we sense unease and danger. We know those staged rehearsals of hands and grip, balance and poise will protect no one.

By Pauline Rowe, Open Eye Gallery’s Writer in Residence

—

Don’t miss the last week of the Jerwood/Photoworks Awards 2015 at Ope Eye Gallery! The exhibition closes on Sunday 18th December at 5:30pm.

Matthew Finn has been photographing his mother in a series of collaborative portraits since 1987. Joanna Piotrowska’s work explores anxiety and the effects of global and political events on the individual. Tereza Zelenkova has travelled to her native Czech Republic to explore themes of history, local legend and folklore.