The Substitute (holiday), 2007, lambda print, 1000 x 1000mm
My artistic practice encompasses photography, video and installation. In my artwork I create photographic cut-outs and re-photograph them in the real world. My artwork forms an enquiry into the act of looking and being looked at. Referring to psychoanalysis, phenomenology and feminism I examine my own experience of becoming an object of sight and also consider the experience the viewer has when looking at me as a female, and a photographic object. Voyeurism and exhibitionism intertwine in these purposefully provocative scenes. I intend to make it difficult to distinguish the 2-dimensional photograph from the surrounding scene. My work is increasingly concerned with the experience of the viewer and I attempt to define a direct relationship between the cut-out and the person looking at it. In the first instance of looking I hope to create a state of familiar acceptance of what the viewer is seeing, followed by an uncanny moment when the oddity of the image is registered, and finally a state where the implied reading collapses, the cut-out becomes visible to the viewer and the image is read in new terms. By producing artwork that establishes me as an object it could be argued that I reinforce stereotypical images of the female body, but by depicting my body as an image I am able to suggest my presence while confirming my absence. There is a suspension of disbelief taking place in the viewing public, as they want to see image and body simultaneously. The overtly sexual nature of the body compels the viewer into the position of voyeur, only to reveal itself as an inanimate object. This wilful delusion is inherent to the medium of photography – the desire to look at a 2-dimensional photograph and believe in the integrity of the 3-dimensional objects that are suggested by the surface.
Dawn Woolley trained as a fine art printmaker. She completed her undergraduate degree in 2001 and has since developed a photography-based practice that encompasses digital video, installation and performance as well as photo-based installations. In 2008 she completed an MA in Photography at the Royal College of Art and was awarded a cash prize for excellence by Land Securities and Art source. In the spring of 2008 she undertook a three month studio residency at Cite des Arts in Paris. Recent exhibitions have included; “My World: Visions of 21st Century Feminism” in the European Women’s Lobby, Brussels (2010), “Start Your Collection” at The London Art Fair (2009), “Fotomonth” in Krakow, Poland (2007) and solo exhibitions in South Square Gallery, Bradford (2009), The Lighthouse Art Centre in Wolverhampton (2006) and Warsaw Project Space in Manchester (2003). Her artwork is held in a number of private collections in the UK, in the Museum of Photographic Arts in Kiyosato, Japan and in The Center for Fine Art Photography, Fort Collins, Colorado, USA. Dawn Woolley was born on 10th March 1980 at RAF Wegburg in Germany, she currently lives and works in Cardiff, UK.
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