LOCKDOWN LOUIS.

Exert from National Gallery X Gender_uck talk curated by Oliver Gingrich and Art in Flux

“I’m Drucilla Burrell and this is my collaborator Magdalene Celeste and I’m going to be talking through some of the photographs we’ve created in lockdown together

So, a little bit about my background, I originally started in classical oil painting.Due to monetary restrictions I ended up working as the administrator at a classical painting atelier.

As a lot of people who go into arts admin to fund their practice find out (and I will say, a lot of women), I then had no time to actually do my practice!

So I took my interest and passion for classical portraiture into photography and specifically iphone photography as the medium suited my time and budgetary restraints and allowed for a bit more spontaneity. I had always been inspired by and enjoyed portraiture as a medium. 

Having a portrait painted or even painting a portrait has always been an expression of power and status it also always felt somewhat inaccessible to me.

In leaving oil painting I found myself using the sort of decadent signifiers and traditions that exist in classical portrait painting within contemporary media to allow myself to access that sort of image making. 

I moved from black and white portraits into I guess what could be called a queering of the classical portrait format, particularly when it comes to gender and gender stereotypes, as a way of exposing and questioning the displays of power and hierarchy embedded within those images. 

Both Magdalena and I spend a lot of time dressing up when we go out in everyday life. And we both tend to subvert the notion of gendered clothing.

Magdalena is a fashion and costume designer whose work beautifully blends historical costumes, fetish wear and couture.

She is a stylist and set designer who creates gothic baroque wonderlands as well has having a beautiful wardrobe…. which allowed for much creativity! 

Being in lockdown together presented interesting restrictions to not only this performative expression but also both of our normal creative practices. So it gave us the opportunity to explore themes which are of interest to both of us within a slightly more domestic context.

It’s been enjoyable and frustrating to work in lockdown and the results have been sometimes exciting and sometimes a little underwhelming.

This is an ongoing project that we will continue to build upon throughout the coming weeks as the world attempts to return to some sense of normality.

The images created tend to be a bit silly, slightly playful and full of whimsy as I believe these are the most powerful in allowing us to explore our unconscious narratives. I feel things that are playful give the opportunity to question the part of the brain that says ‘I know what that is!’ and dismisses any further input.

Within this context - ‘I know what that is, it’s a photograph of Louis XV11’ is a ridiculously surreal conclusion for us to come to – because of course it can’t be a photograph of Louis XVII 

We tend to be more comfortable with THAT conclusion than the reality of the image – a woman dressed  in contemporary clothes that reference historical outfits sitting surrounded by fabric in what appears to be a bedroom. 

Because we can largely recognize the overall semiotic codes presented in classical portraiture this gives the opportunity to make images that ask questions of assumptions and unspoken social rules. This then allows us to see more clearly the everyday social  and power structures that we take for granted particularly surrounding gender dynamics.

The brain’s response to being presented with reversed or confused gender SIGNIFIERS is often fear or aggression because of this dynamic and how our brain is being asked to question what it knows.

This act of being asked to look TWICE is one I’m interested in and believe is fundamental in order to bring about reform and change to those unspoken rules and structures we live by.