A series of new portraits by artist Gillian Wearing (b.1963)听are placed alongside the work of early 20th century French photographer Claude Cahun (1894鈥1954) for the first time at the National Portrait Gallery, London. Coinciding with听last month’s International Women鈥檚 Day on 8 March, Gillian Wearing and Claude Cahun: Behind the mask, another mask听brings together a听total of 100 works by the two artists听to showcase their shared interest in听themes of gender, identity, masquerade and performance.
Cahun, along with her contemporaries Andr茅 Breton and Man Ray, was affiliated with the French Surrealist movement although her work was rarely exhibited during her lifetime, while听Turner Prize winner Wearing’s photographic self-portraits incorporate recreations of her as others in an intriguing range of guises. Despite their different backgrounds, parallels can be drawn between the artists whose fascination with identity and gender is played out through performance and masquerade. Wearing overtly references her counterpart听in听Me as Cahun holding a mask of my face, which is a听reconstruction of Cahun鈥檚 self-portrait Don鈥檛 kiss me I鈥檓 in training听(1927), and forms the starting point of the听exhibition.
Notable pieces on display include the monumental Rock n鈥檙oll 70 wallpaper (2015-16), a computer-generated impression of the artist aging, and new commission My Exquisite Corpse.听A听tribute to the surrealist work of Cahun, it听portrays Wearing’s听version of a parlour game played by the Surrealists in which each participant draws on a sheet of paper, then folds and passes it to the next player for their contribution. Here, Wearing collaborated with听fellow artists Gary Hume and Michael Landy: Hume creating the head, Landy, the torso, and Wearing the legs.
Intertwined within the exhibition is a foreboding self-portrait of a masked Cahun, taken in the graveyard where she was to be buried a few years later. Wearing 鈥榗ollaborates鈥 with her forebear in new work, At Cahun鈥檚 Grave (2015). The artist听poses behind Cahun and her partner Marcel Moore鈥檚 shared tombstone with her hair combed over her face, to create a darker version of Cahun鈥檚 featureless mask. Wearing cups her hands around her face, mirroring the听original photograph in an attempt to peel back the layers of the enigmatic artist more than 60听years after her death.
Elsewhere, in听Cahun and Wearing, the artists stand side-by-side, like twins, dressed in the same dark cloaks. A single floating arm appears from the opening of each cloak signifying their shared fascination with disembodied limbs. The exhibition’s title听Behind the mask, another mask听adapts a quotation from Cahun鈥檚 Surrealist writings. It forms part听of , a season of displays and events exploring art, gender and identity at the National Portrait Gallery.
Gillian Wearing and Claude Cahun: Behind the mask, another mask, until听29 May, National Portrait Gallery, London.
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Credits
1.听Claude Cahun, Self-Portrait (shaved head, material draped over body), 1920. Jersey Heritage Collections.
