R.I.P Betty Page, Pin Up Queen
Laura Gonzalez is an artist and writer. Her recent practice encompasses film, dance, photography and text, and her work has been exhibited and published in the UK, Spain and Portugal. She has spoken at numerous conferences and events, including the Museum for the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York, the Medical Museum in Copenhagen, College Arts Association and the Association for the Psychoanalysis of Culture and Society. When she is not following Freud, Lacan and Marx’s footsteps with her camera, she lectures postgraduate students at the Glasgow School of Art.
Her doctoral project, completed in 2010, investigated psychoanalytic approaches to making and understanding objects of seduction, including an examination of parallels between artistic and analytic practices, a study of Manolo Blahnik’s shoes as objects of desire, a disturbing encounter with Marcel Duchamp’s last work, and the creation of a psychoanalytically inspired Discourse of the Artefact, a framework enabling the circulation of questions and answers through a relational approach to artworks.She is currently immersed in an interdisciplinary project exploring knowledge and the body of the hysteric.
The film sound track rocks
Hey Laura: wonderful to see a bettie Paige-page–really she spend most of her life in mental institutions. We sold several vintage shots of her when we had the gallery. The wholesome whore–of faux–S & M. It would be amusing if it were so tragic. She ended up a fundamentalist at the finish. Sad really because she was so delicious in her time.
http://subjectify.blogspot.com/2008/12/great-subjects-bettie-page.html
more info about her relation to images and photography here!!
Hi Sandra,
First of all, Happy birthday! It is wonderful to hear from you. You are right about Betty. What a life story. Phenomenally rich and with so many tragicomic / melodramatic moments. Still, your word delicious fits her very well…
L-x
Hannah, would you believe I haven’t seen the film? Maybe that’s a little hommage I could pay to such an iconic figure. I will pay attention to the soundtrack! Lx
Belen, what a photo! And with a quote by John Berger! Thanks for the link. Like Cindy Sherman (but in a different way), she had something that captured the camera and therefore, the viewer’s eyes. Difficult to describe but the article’s mention of “at ease” is in the right area, I think.
Hi Laura, the film isn’t that great -
But it does highlight her beauty – I was looking for interesting music for performance and came across the title music to the film. That brought me to the film and then to Page herself..she was there before Ditta Von Tease ..and with something more if you ask me – although i’m going on what i’ve seen and heard.
I like the Sherman reference – the photos have the same quality – I love using the images in my work with students. I usually place music with them and see how they change. Wonder what would happen if i tried that with the Page images.
Hx
hey well its a good thing that she with all the pretty stars in the sky,,, i will only remmeber her as a pinup fan!!!