Linder Sterling analysis

Context
This is an example of one of Sterling's less explicit pieces. To create this she uses collage using pornographic images. These pieces where made in the 70's and as times have changed socially so has the way that we see her work. Her work creates a statement on feminism and porn magazines.

Meaning
To help me with the understanding of her work I used three articles which interviewed her on her work from the 70's. The main theme of her work is porn and I would say that I see feminism in her work. The meaning of her work over the years has changed dramatically from what it used to mean. Originally theses pieces were very shocking to the people of the 70's, however it was an era of rebellion and dramatically changing fashions. Now as a viewer I do not find these pieces shocking because the world is so open in the 21st century, our minds are shown things because of the way that technology has developed. The artist has said “I was trying to decode pornography: pornography as a sexual shorthand and the way it's very formulaic. And I was fascinated by the way pornography was very hidden" Feminism comes into the fact that at the time of the making of these pieces sterling was continuously reading feminist novels which probably influenced the use of the porn images, however at the time of the making of these she wasn't seen as someone who was a feminist artist they were probably focusing on the fact that she was using such taboo images.

Aesthetic 
All images have been collected from porn magazines, you can tell that this black and white image was taken in the 70's from the quality and the colour also the design and colour of the kettle.  The brass colour of the kettle contrasts with the black and white image in the background. The collage is very contrasting itself the use of the kettle which is probably from a domestic magazine just doesn't link in with the theme of a porn magazine, it just represents something very family friendly against something that was a taboo at the time it was made.   

Personal response 
In my opinion these pieces are still explicit to me and even when I found out that she used porn magazines to create the collages I was slightly shocked. I like them though to the point where they create a statement about feminism. In a way it has shown me that a simple photograph can be changed by adding on one more thing and it will totally change the meaning of it. 

These are my interpretations of Sterlings collages. To create mine I used collage but not with paper and photographs and images from other sources like the artist did, instead I used a person and got them to hold the things up to their face. In this image I got the model to sit on the sink worktop, this way it related to my artist as they are in an area which women are know to be, doing the washing up. I used this to put across the idea of feminism just like the artist. I also got her to hold a house hold appliance to her face again emphasises the idea of feminism.

This image was related to the same artist but to a different collage from the one above. I wanted mainly to use this because of using the mouth and the blah blah blah idea on one of my exquisite corpses. To create this I chose four people to model for me, on holding the mouth whjere their mouth is and the other three holding the blah blah blahs up to their faces, this idea changed slighty as i wanted them at different hights so it didn't just look like a row a words.On going back to the artist there was a piece where she had a woman in the photograph with a bit of paper with the image of a mouth so thought this was a perfect interpretation but a way of takíng it further.