A Portfolio of Models
Six black and white film photographs with text and 1 single text
47.7 × 33 cm (18 3/4 × 13 in.) (each)
This series of six black-and-white gelatin silver photographs with accompanying texts, Portfolio of Models, presents six female archetypes that the artist portrays for the camera. None of these corresponds to the female artist that Martha Wilson embodies herself, one who eludes the dominant representations.
By speaking of identities as a set of codes, costumes, and postures, Martha Wilson highlights our societies' ability to fabricate identity, a form of limiting fiction, and invites us to reflect on how to construct other forms of representation. In this series, she heralds the practice of artists, including Cindy Sherman, who made questioning representation and the construction of identity the focus of their research. Martha Wilson is also recognized in the art word as a gallery owner and avant-garde curator.
This series is presented for the first time by the Pinault Collection in the exhibition "Ouverture" at the Bourse de Commerce in 2021.
