Mourning ( Comtese)

Feelings of loss and stillness have always been important concerns for me. These are long standing preoccupations in the way I think about my work. Earlier work with photographs focused on aspects of looking such as windows, curtains and reflections. Here in this image I have used photocopying to collage two images together, that of a bust and of a curtain repeated. In this way obscuring the image draws more attention to it.

I was reminded of a sculpture (bust) commissioned by Comtesse de Feuquieres to represent herself mourning her father. It was completed 1738 by Jean-Baptist Lemoyne.

Mourning (Mannequin Portraits)

When my husband died I found myself drawn to photograph mannequins in shop windows. I walked a lot in those early days. The shop dummies looked a lot like how i felt.

I named each of the mannequin portraits after a flower from Marie Antoinette's garden and drew on some of them with a crayon.