Laurie Simmons and Postmodernism

As Postmodern art was forming in the middle of the 20th century, it was said to have bursted into the artistic scene. It was a movement replacing Modernism and was viewed as a form of art which had no conventional or standard guidelines to set precedence for the practice. Postmodern art incorporated aspects from a number of different artistic practices when creating an artwork. This era was typically characterized by complete freedom from societal influences which allowed artists to truly express what they thought or how they felt. Essentially, Postmodern art was necessary in the way it sought to contradict the ideals of Modernism by attempting to deeply connect with social issues on every level. Due to the fact that there was a lack of clear and conventional distinction of what included Postmodern art, artists really had free reign to discover new ideas and create anything they desired.

Shot in a dollhouse, Laurie Simmons’s “Woman Listening to Radio,” 1978, with a housewife trapped in a tasteful living room right out of the 50’s.

It's worth noting that existing forms of representation are being carried out by female artists who are calling into question the representation of women in film, domestic life, etc. Like the image above, these examples of black and white images shed light on the stereotypes that were taking place in 1950's and 1960's film. Photographers such as Laurie Simmons use these types of subjects to illustrate fictional moments, not actual film. Characters that were presented in these types of photographs (doll or actual human) have a great effect on the overall photos, especially those of which have a familiar aspect. There seems to be an obvious convergence between feminists questioning patriarchy and postmodernism questioning representation.  

Laurie Simmons had been arranging these dollhouse scenes ever since the middle of the 1970's, aiming to examine and reflect on the culture of home comforts. In response to her photograph, she says, "It's interesting to me that a picture can be so bright and so vivacious and so lonely at the same time... Where is the rest of the world, where are the other people, where's the rest of the family." The scene Laurie has created, resonated with her memories of being raised, especially because her parents were children of Jewish immigrants and the house embodied their fulfilled American dream. But unfortunately as a woman artist using dolls as a medium, she got many critiques complicated by the sociopolitical pressures saying that it was just a nostalgic recall of girlhood play. 

In describing this work Simmons said, "I was simply trying to recreate a feeling, a mood... a sense of the fifties that I knew was both beautiful and lethal at the same time." It was a formative piece in the many photographic scenes she created as a series, however Simmons became one of the first artists to push the boundaries we now call conceptual art. Throughout her career, she continued to instill dolls, puppets and ventriloquist dummies with an almost human sense of loneliness or even longing, creating a psychologically sharp witted exposition of women's roles in their countless personifications from housewife to object. 

Sources 

- “Addison Gallery of American Art.” Phillips Academy - Addison Gallery of American Art - Laurie Simmons, Woman Listening to Radio. Accessed October 9, 2021. http://accessaddison.andover.edu/objects-1/info?query=Exhibition+%3D+%223137%22&sort=0&page=38. 

- Artincontext. “Postmodern Art - an in-Depth Exploration of the Postmodernism Period.” artincontext.org, September 4, 2021. https://artincontext.org/postmodern-art/#Andy_Warhol_1928_8211_1987. 

- “Laurie Simmons: Woman Listening to Radio (1978): Available for Sale.” Artsy. Accessed October 9, 2021. https://www.artsy.net/artwork/laurie-simmons-woman-listening-to-radio. 

- Lubow, Arthur. “Influenced by Her Children, Laurie Simmons Exits Her Comfort Zone.” The New York Times. The New York Times, April 27, 2018. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/27/arts/design/laurie-simmons-salon-94-artist.html. 

- Published by nickiemarlandphotography View all posts by nickiemarlandphotography, Published by nickiemarlandphotography, Nickiemarlandphotography, and View all posts by nickiemarlandphotography. “Postmodernism and Photography- Lecture 5.” Photography Theory, January 9, 2017. https://nickiemarlandphotography.wordpress.com/2016/12/06/postmodernism-and-photography/.