PATTY CARROLL

Patty Carroll, 2017, Cooking, photograph

Patty Carroll, 2017, Stairsy, photograph (left)

Patty Carroll, 2017, Ghastly, photograph (right)

Patty Carroll, 2017, Tubby, photograph

(All media from 'Anonymous Women' series)

PATTY CARROLL

Patty Carroll is an American photographer known for her work with the female form. For this discussion, I will focus on her most recent series, ‘Demise’, within her body of work, ‘Anonymous Women’. Similar to what we have worked with in class, Carroll has used an eclectic array of materials, objects and detached limbs from female mannequins to create her works (although we haven’t been using limbs). In this series of studio installations, Carroll addresses the role of women “and their complicated relationship with domesticity” (Foiret 2017) through camouflaging parts of women within the environment she has created. Although the limbs should, in theory, stand out as a strange, unnatural occurrence, by having them amongst so many other items within the same colour palette, they do not look out of place and blend in. I take this as a poke at the norms and the expectations surrounding the role of women and domestic duties. By using compositional strategies such as limiting contrast and using bleeding, Carroll is able to effectively communicate her message. If she had used another technique we have been looking at in class instead, for example negative space, the works would not have been as successful because the various limbs would not blend into the settings as effectively.

Foiret, C 2017, Patty Carroll’s Anonymous Women Portraits, Trendland, weblog post, 21 April, viewed 25 April 2017, <http://trendland.com/patty-carrolls-anonymous-woman-portraits/>.