Press Releases and Artist Statements
Trim Trail
This work evolved as part of Visual Dialogues 2010, a project between Norwich Castle Museum and the Tate Britain. For Visual Dialogues I responded to a painting by Ged Quinn, creating Trim Trail, a series of five photographs. These photographs depict a figure in a strapless dress, high heels, fascinator and sash, completing an assault course in the woods. The outfit is impractical, even farcical, for the task. The imagery plays with notions of dress codes, fitness, belonging, and beauty regimens.
The sash and fascinator were created for a previous performance, More Than Beautiful, at Landguard Fort in Felixstowe. The performance consisted of an army of volunteers wearing matching fascinators and marching in formation. In Trim Trail I took this uniform to the road and documented myself wearing the outfit in several different settings. I consider Trim Trail to be both a performance piece and a photographic series as, at times, passers-by would stop to watch the proceedings. It was very cold and occasionally wet, which emphasised the ridiculous nature of this impractical outfit.
Trim Trail responds to Ged Quinn’s work by replicating the dislocated feel of many of his works. Quinn often uses trees in his paintings to play with scale and to deconstruct romanticised ideas of nature. The subject matter in Trim Trail reflects my concerns with contemporary attitudes towards dress codes, while Quinn’s influence is evident in the surreal and unsettling atmosphere.
Diane Archer
November 2010
More than Beautiful
More than Beautiful is the result of a collaboration between Diane Archer and Christina Sabberton. Having studied together and working with similar ideas, they decided to join forces in order to wage war on the battlefield of dress codes. In this performance they are exploring the theme of "readiness" as it relates to the daily rituals we undertake to prepare ourselves for being seen in the world. Diane and Christina each designed their own uniforms that reflect different aspects of this theme. More than Beautiful is a satirical performance that questions dress and the attitudes and conventions surrounding it.
Feat
Diane Archer's lens based work makes wry comment on the importance of 'fitting in' and our frequent inability to do so. She looks at the lengths we go to change our appearance and assume alternative roles, often deceiving ourselves into believing that we are somehow more attractive. Archer will show Feat, a sequence of short film observations that trail 'Subjects', or women (including herself) walking in high heels. Displayed on a small CCTV monitor the surveillance like footage of unsuspecting specimens appears comical, until on prolonged viewing the real act of trying to 'pull it off' in such idealised footwear as both natural and comfortable begins to expose physical dysfunction, inelegance and humiliating effects.
Fitting Room
For the Fitting Room series of photographs, I decided to explore a space that holds a morbid fascination for me. The fitting room has the power to make my dreams come true, as I try on clothes that will somehow transform me into a beautiful person. In reality, I am always disappointed by the body that presents itself under fluorescent lighting, reflected toward me from all angles. In the beginning I was afraid of the photographs; I hid in corners, with my head down. Over time I began to look at my body as a visual subject, with lighting, angles, symmetry, etc. I began to show my face, and even look directly at the camera. In looking at the images later, I began to realize that although the images show an unconventionally beautiful body, they are beautiful in an unexpected way. I hope that these photographs create a feeling of the possibility for beauty to be in anyone. This is perhaps the simplest, most essential question in this work: What is beautiful?
Diane Archer