Robbert Mapplethorpe was an American photographer who was known for his black and white photos. In the 70s Mapplethorpe brought himself a Polaroid camera and began to take pictures of people he knew including artists and musicians. This a photograph of Kenny moody and Robbert Sherman, Mapplethorpe often showcases themes of sexuality and queer culture within his work and he depecits it well in this photograph. In this photograph, we can see two men of different races one who is Caucasian and the other is black. The Caucasian man seems to have his body resting on the man infront of him whereas, the black man has his eyes closed and seems quite tensed. Both men in this photograph have bald heads which I think could represent vulnerability between the two men in the photo. With that being said, I also enjoy the contrasts within this photograph, the uniformed dark grey background is behind black and white man. Also the closed and open eyes between the two men is another contrast which I find quite interesting. I believe this photograph does portray the theme of identity particularly sexual identity. Mapplethorpe himself was gay and it was his sexuality which inspired him to do photography of male nudity. His work became a big part of LGBT history and it gave people an insight into queer culture that some people didn’t know about. I think Mapplethorpes artwork liberates sexual and queer identity furthermore, I believe some of his work is quite daring in nature. Most of the photos that he took back then were explicit and would have a been shocking for the viewer to witness. To conclude I think mapplethorpe does a good job of displaying lgbt and queer identity in this photograph.
This painting is called "sacred journey" by Michael reeder, he is an urban contemporary artist from Dallas. In some of his work he explores self identity. In this painting there is a distorted colourful silhouette of an upper body. The colours look graphic and splattered on, it looks an explosion of paints inside a body. The silhouette is against a plain blue background which is a big contrast from the multitude of colours that is in the body. The eyes have also been replaced with pink circles which I find quite odd, I think it gives the painting a surrealism effect. Furthermore, there is also a hand within this painting that is black and white, there is no thumb attached to this hand either. could the missing represent a lost part of oneself? Because this painting is called 'sacred journey' it could be showing vulnerable parts of ones journey. Although reeder does explore themes of 'being lost' and 'being an outsider', he wants the viewer to interpret his work based on how they see it , there is not set theme in his work or a code to crack. When I look at this painting I see a mystery, I almost feel lost in the colours because they are so compacted together. even though this painting does look strange in nature I think it does a good job of representing self and identity. Humans are quite complex within themselves therefore, I believe the splatters of paint reflects that concept. To conclude, I believe I can relate to this painting as an individual as there has been times where I have felt lost in my identity. I started to find myself when I came to terms with my identity and accepted the complexities of who I am.
references
Carter, F. (2018) Artist Michael Reeder explores identity and sense of self, Forbes. Forbes Magazine. Available at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/felicitycarter/2018/08/14/artist-michael-reeder-explores-identity-and-sense-of-self/?sh=66af11a25903 (Accessed: January 11, 2023).
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