The instability of the pillar
Molloy, Caroline (2022) The instability of the pillar. In: Culture, Things, and Empire, 25 May 2022, Birkbeck University of London. (Unpublished)
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In this paper I will discuss the Importance of the pillar and curtain as visual tropes seen in studio photography both historically and in a contemporary case study - high street studio photography in north-London (2012-16). I look at how this history is unstable by firstly drawing from an art historical discourse (Wilton 1992, Pointon 1993), that locates the meaning of the background in portrait painting, such as the pillar and curtain, was to signify of wealth and status. I build on this by referring to Linkman (1993) who writes that early studio photography adopted similar strategies to express the aspirations of the sitter. I then complicate this reading by placing the history of the pillar/column within a post-colonial Orientalist framework, drawing from Nochlin (1989) via Said (1972). This opposing perspective of reading the pillar through the prism of Orientalism offers another way of understanding the allegoric language of studio photography. In offering an alternative reading of the pillar, I complicate Western art historical reading of the pillar-column and curtain and in doing so raise questions about its presence in the studio photograph. This raises the question of who actually claims ownership of the pillar-column and curtain as an historical object in visual culture. In fact, I argue it is more useful to question whether the use of the pillar-column and curtain as props in early studio photography, although ubiquitous had at this point lost their art historical referent. If the photographic Victorian studio was a fashionable place to be seen in as Di Bello (2007) suggests, perhaps it should be considered that the pillar-column and curtain had transcended their original meanings? I put forward the idea that instead of signifying aspiration and status, the pillar-column and curtain within the context of the studio photograph becomes a figurative representation of the photographic studio itself.
Culture, Things and Empire is a virtual seminar series focused on understanding colonial history through the lens of material culture.
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