Patty Carroll
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American, born 1946
Projects/Portfolios
Anonymous Women: Reconstructed
Introduction
In this series, “Reconstructed,” the woman becomes part of her domestic trappings and activities. I am creating narrative, full size, still-life images comprised of many objects. “Reconstructed Series” is commentary on obsession with collecting, accumulating designing and decorating, inviting hilarity and pathos about our relationship with “things.” They are installations made in the studio for the camera that play with color, space and scale, and use household objects as subject matter. We are making a life size box in the studio as a substitute for the home. A mannequin substitutes for the woman, who is camouflaged among her domestic objects in the space. The final outcome is a photograph and/or a short video. https://vimeo.com/114394556. The digital prints are 36 x 36 inches.
Growing up in the suburbs of Chicago provided the basis of all of my work, and I continually seek to come to terms with it. I grew up when suburban life was idealized; the home was a place of perfection and harmony, free from harsh realities of the city, without crime, or messy interiors, where everyone’s drapes and sofa matched, where people were normal, without dark little secrets. It was at time when the “woman’s place was in the home.” I am photographically creating worlds that debunk, critique and satirize these myths of claustrophobic perfection.
Anonymous Women: Draped
Introduction
Anonymous Women: Draped
My series of photographs, Anonymous Women: Draped is about becoming the dwelling itself; experiencing the dichotomy of domesticity. The home is a place of comfort but can also be camouflage for individual identity when idealized decor becomes an obsession, or indication of position or status. “Staying home” is a state that some women also aspire to as a place of power, while others abhor because of its prison-like atmosphere. In all cases, women need “ A room of their own.” This series has references to draped statues from the Renaissance, nuns in habits, women wearing the burka, the Virgin Mary, priests’ and judges’ robes, ancient Greek and Roman dress, among others. The series is also a small tribute to Scarlett O’Hara, who, undaunted by wars, pulled down her drapery to fashion a beautiful gown, and would do anything to keep her home, Tara. Hopefully, I am bringing humor to pathos.
Anonymous Women: Disasters
Introduction
The subject is the merging of woman and home.
In the previous photographic series, “Anonymous Women: Draped,” a lone woman is hidden in a draped vignette with an occasional domestic prop or piece of furniture, where she performs domestic trickery. In the ensuing series, “Anonymous Women: Reconstructed,” the woman becomes part of her excessive domestic trappings and activities. “Reconstructed” is commentary on obsession with collecting, designing, and decorating, inviting hilarity and pathos in our relationship with “things.” The photographs are life-size installations made in the studio using household objects as subject matter. A mannequin substitutes for the woman, where camouflage and anonymity reaches its logical conclusion of extreme absurdity, as she perpetually disappears into the artifice and visual overload of colors and patterns in her environment. Finding the anonymous woman in the chaos becomes an interactive scavenger hunt. In the newest narratives, “Disasters,” the woman becomes the victim of her home, to her fatal end. Her home has become a site of tragedy and danger, with scenes of heartbreaking mishaps and horror, inspired by many sources including the game of clue.
The scenes and narratives that I create in the studio are about women who use their objects and décor to shore themselves up against a dark, scary world. Obsessing and perfecting home life with its objects, decoration, and activities fill a void of futility, and invents usefulness beyond caring for family or career.
Growing up in the suburbs of Chicago provided the basis of all of my work, and I continually seek to come to terms with the myth of perfection and illusion. I am photographically creating worlds that debunk, critique, and satirize the claustrophobic perfection of expectation.
Flora and Fauxna
Introduction
Flora and Fauxna is a still-life series using bird figurines as a metaphorical substitute for decoratively fanatical women. The slang description of a bird is a woman who is materially obsessed and morally corrupt, but physically desirable. Real birds camouflage themselves in their tree homes, making sounds, but remain invisible as they go about their business of feeding, fending off predators and teaching their young. Their camouflage is essential to survival. In these still-life photographs, I use decorative fabric, artificial flowers and other “collectible” items to create a sumptuous patterned and ornate world mimicking the home life of actual birds, symbolizing the nesting and survival instincts of women whose homes are a source of pride and obsession, and the many women who look for meaning in their lives in their own nesting instincts.
The digital photographs are 24 inches square created in the studio and digitally printed on an Epson 9900.
Martha Schneider Gallery, Chicago, IL, United States
Martine Chaisson Gallery, New Orleans, LA, United States
Sherry Leedy Gallery, Kansas City, MO, United States
Artist Statement
Artists often go to great lengths to find the place where the soul lives. Fortunately for me in most of my work, I only have to return to my suburban hometown, either metaphorically or in actuality to find defining moments and place. My work is divided into two parts: documenting the world outside, and my pretend world of home in the studio. I live in both worlds: the real one and the fabricated, ironic world of women and their obsession with décor and objects.
Patty Carroll has her BFA from the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana in Graphic Design, and her Master of Science (MS) in Photography from the Institute of Design at IIT, Chicago. Since leaving graduate school, in 1972, she has taught photography continuously at the University level, both full and part-time. Currently she resides in Chicago with her husband of 25 years, Tony Jones, CBE. She is active with her own professional fine-art photography practice, with her studio in Chicago after a long teaching career.
Carroll was Adjunct Full Professor at School of the Art Institute of Chicago and previously taught at Columbia College in Chicago, The Institute of Design at IIT and the Royal College of Art in London, as well as other universities. Carroll is an Adobe Certified Instructor in Photoshop, and teaches for Ascend Training in Chicago. She has participated in numerous group and one-person exhibitions, and has work in several museums internationally. She is the photographic author of 4 books; Spirited Visions a book and exhibit of portraits of Chicago artists in 1992 with James Yood, Culture is Everywhere, published by Prestel in 2002 with Victor Margolin, and Living the Life: The World of Elvis Tribute Artists, 2005, and Man Bites Dog: The Culture of Hot Dogs in America, with Bruce Kraig 2012.
Selected one-person exhibits include “Are You Lonesome Tonight” at Royal Photographic Society in Bath, England in 1996, “Elvis?” at the Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago in 1999, and “Dark and Deadly: Photographs and Digital Movie Posters” at The Art Institute of Chicago in 2004. Since 2010, her Anonymous Women: Draped series was shown at White Box Museum in Beijing, at Shanghai University Gallery, Zheighang Art Museum in Hangzhou, China, several University galleries and museums, and at the Cultural Center in Chicago in 2012. She was the recipient of an Artist Fellowship Grant from the Illinois Arts Council in 2003, and has had various International artist residencies. Her work has been featured on many online blogs such as The Huffington Post, The British Journal of Photography, and Trendland. http://www.pattycarroll.com
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