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Nan Goldin and Andres Serrano's Post-Mortem Photography

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Nan Goldin and Andres Serrano's Post-Mortem Photography Visible Care: Nan Goldin and Andres Serrano’s Post-mortem Photography Lauren Jane Summersgill Humanities and Cultural Studies Birkbeck, University of London Submitted for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy November 2014 2 Declaration I certify that this thesis is the result of my own investigations and, except for quotations, all of which have been clearly identified, was written entirely by me. Lauren J. Summersgill October 2014 3 Abstract This thesis investigates artistic post-mortem photography in the context of shifting social relationship with death in the 1980s and 1990s. Analyzing Nan Goldin’s Cookie in Her Casket and Andres Serrano’s The Morgue, I argue that artists engaging in post- mortem photography demonstrate care for the deceased. Further, that demonstrable care in photographing the dead responds to a crisis of the late 1980s and early 1990s in America. At the time, death returned to social and political discourse with the visibility of AIDS and cancer and the euthanasia debates, spurring on photographic engagement with the corpse. Nan Goldin’s 1989 post-mortem portrait of her friend, Cookie in Her Casket, was first presented within The Cookie Portfolio. The memorial portfolio traced the friendship between Cookie and Goldin over fourteen years. The work relies on a personal narrative, framing the works within a familial gaze. I argue that Goldin creates the sense of family to encourage empathy in the viewer for Cookie’s loss. Further, Goldin’s generic and beautified post-mortem image of Cookie is a way of offering Cookie respect and dignity in death. Andres Serrano’s 1992 The Morgue is a series of large-scale cropped, and detailed photographs capturing indiscriminate bodies from within an unidentified morgue. I assert that Serrano intentionally presents these corpses as objects, outside of life. His stark lighting, emphasis on texture and the rich colours of Cibachrome print beautify and lavish aesthetic care on the corpse-objects. I propose a reading of The Morgue through Serrano’s deliberate use of beauty to transform the corpses into icons, and read the entire series as a visualisation of the sublime within the abject. Goldin and Serrano have fundamentally different approaches to post-mortem photography. Goldin’s work follows an artistic and historical tradition of memorial portraits taken of the deceased by friends or family; whereas Serrano follows from a forensic framework appropriated by artists who photograph within a morgue. Previous discourse separated memorial and forensic post-mortem photography in order to better appreciate the historical trajectory of each field. In the context of a time where death was moving from near invisibility into the mainstream, comparing Goldin and Serrano offers insight into the changes in America’s visual relationship with death. 4 Acknowledgements I am fortunate to have experienced a great deal of support from Birkbeck College in the development of my work. I want to extend my thanks to my supervisors – Patrizia diBello and Suzannah Beirnoff – for taking on this project, and for your guidance and knowledge throughout supervision. Thanks also to Ben Cranfield, without whom I would not have landed on my feet. I have also been fortunate to come across many helpful individuals and groups in my research. My gratitude to Pace/McGill gallery for generously supplying me information on their early 1990s exhibitions, and to Jack Mord and the Thanatos Archive team for allowing me access, tirelessly answering question, and making images available to me. Thanks also to Michaela Puffer-Sand of Camera Austria for helping me find an early printed edition of The Cookie Portfolio, and to Leonard Abrahams of the East Village Eye, for granting access to Cookie’s writing and interviews. Finally, I am endlessly appreciative of the faith and support given to me by my friends and family. I wish to especially extend my thanks to Robin Davis Beducian, Celeste Carandang, Kat Lagrue, Beth Elliot-Lockhart, Abri Nelson, Rachael Ni Brolachán, Hélène Tyrell, Matthew Walker, Paul Williams, and Nadja Wolfe. Finally, above all others, I want to express my gratitude to my beloved husband, Ian, who has given so much of his time, faith and patience. In loving memory of Jim and Alison. 5 Table of Contents List of Figures p.6 Introduction p.10 A Time to Live, A Time to Die: 1980s and 1990s New York City p.20 PART ONE: Reconsidering Nan Goldin’s Cookie in Her Casket Introduction p.31 1. Outliving Ourselves: Goldin’s Life and Work the Bowery p.52 2. On Display: The Cookie ‘Look’ p.70 3. Cookie in Her Casket in Circulation p.87 3.2 Cookie in Context p.101 Section Conclusion p.106 PART TWO: The Dead Outside Portraiture in Andres Serrano’s The Morgue Introduction p.109 4. Beauty in Serrano’s Photographs: A Painter with a Camera p.121 5. Andres Serrano and the Crisis of Forensic Looking p.135 6. The Religious Sublime p.155 6.2 Creating Dignity through Distance: In Response to the Medical Death p.165 Section Conclusion p.172 6 CONCLUSION: Dignity and Care in Post-mortem Representation 7. The Narrative of Care p.175 8. Conclusion p.182 Bibiliography p.185 7 List of Figures Figure 1 Nan Goldin, Cookie in Her Casket, NYC, November 15, 1989, 1989. Cibachrome print, 40.6 x 50.8 cm. As reproduced in Nan Goldin: I’ll Be Your Mirror, ed. by Nan Goldin, David Armstrong, and Hanz Werner Holzwarth (New York: Witney Museum of American Art, 1996) Figure 2 Andy Warhol, David Bowie http://en.artintern.net/index.php/news/main/html/1/391 Figure 3 Andy Warhol, Ambulance Disaster, c. 1963-4. Silkscreen ink on Canvas, 119 x 80 1/8 inches. <http://artimage.org.uk/6129/andy- warhol/ambulance-disaster--1964> Figure 4 Nan Goldin, Naomi Under the Palm Tree, 1973. Gelatin silver print, 45 x 40 cm. As reproduced in Nan Goldin: I’ll Be Your Mirror, ed. by Nan Goldin, David Armstrong, and Hanz Werner Holzwarth (New York: Witney Museum of American Art, 1996) Figure 5 Untitled Advertisement of Whilemena Cooper. Vogue (March 1964) <http://weheartvintage.co/2012/12/18/1960s-vogue-3/> Figure 6 Nan Goldin, Roommate putting on Makeup, Boston, 1973. Cibachrome print, 34.7 x 22.7 cm. As reproduced in Nan Goldin: I’ll Be Your Mirror, ed. by Nan Goldin, David Armstrong, and Hanz Werner Holzwarth (New York: Witney Museum of American Art, 1996) Figure 7 Nan Goldin, Cookie and Me After I was Punched. Cibachrome print, 40.6 x 50.8 cm. As reproduced in Nan Goldin: I’ll Be Your Mirror, ed. by Nan Goldin, David Armstrong, and Hanz Werner Holzwarth (New York: Witney Museum of American Art, 1996) Figure 8 Nan Goldin, Heart Shaped Bruise, NYC. 1980, Silver dye bleach print, 50.8 x 60.96 cm. As reproduced in Nan Goldin: I’ll Be Your Mirror, ed. 8 by Nan Goldin, David Armstrong, and Hanz Werner Holzwarth (New York: Witney Museum of American Art, 1996) Figure 9 Nan Goldin, Cookie and Millie in the Girls’ room at the Mudd Club, 1979. Cibachrome print, 40.6 x 50.8 cm. As reproduced in Nan Goldin: I’ll Be Your Mirror, ed. by Nan Goldin, David Armstrong, and Hanz Werner Holzwarth (New York: Witney Museum of American Art, 1996) Figure 10 Bob Bert, Cookie Mueller, 1985. Acrylic on Canvas. Dimensions unconfirmed. AI Earthling Gallery, New York. <http://www.aiearthling.net> Figure 11 Nan Goldin, Cookie in the Garden at Ciro’s, 1989, Cibachrome print, 40.6 x 50.8 cm. As reproduced in Nan Goldin: I’ll Be Your Mirror, ed. by Nan Goldin, David Armstrong, and Hanz Werner Holzwarth (New York: Witney Museum of American Art, 1996) Figure 12 Nan Goldin, Sharon with Cookie on the Bed, Provincetown, September 1989. Cibachrome print, 40.6 x 50.8 cm. As reproduced in Nan Goldin: I’ll Be Your Mirror, ed. by Nan Goldin, David Armstrong, and Hanz Werner Holzwarth (New York: Witney Museum of American Art, 1996) Figure 13 Nan Goldin, Cookie being x-rayed, NYC, October, 1989. Cibachrome print, 40.6 x 50.8 cm. As reproduced in Nan Goldin: I’ll Be Your Mirror, ed. by Nan Goldin, David Armstrong, and Hanz Werner Holzwarth (New York: Witney Museum of American Art, 1996) Figure 14 David Woznarowicz Untitled (Peter Hujar), 1989. Gelatin Silver Print, 14 x 10 in. < http://www.americansuburbx.com/2011/02/peter-hujar- david-wojnarowicz-some-sort.html> Figure 15 Young Dead Girl “Sleeping”. Southworth and Hawes, Boston. Daguerreotype, c. 1853. As reproduced in Stanley Burns, Sleeping Beauty: Memorial Photography in America (Altadena, CA: Twelvetrees Press, 1990). 9 Figure 16 Photographer Unknown, ‘Woman Deceased At Rest in Casket’, 1915. Courtesy of Jack Mord, Thanatos Archive, Washington, USA. Figure 17 David Thibult. Untitled photograph of Elvis in his Coffin. National Enquirer. September 6, 1977. < http://dailycaller.com/?attachment_id =3071318> Figure 18 Andres Serrano, Nomads (John), 1990. Plexi-glass mounted Cibachrome print, 165.1 x 139.7 cm. ArtNet.com Figure 19 Andres Serrano, The Church (Monseigneur Jacques Bishop of Chartres), 1991. Plexi-glass mounted Cibachrome print, 127 x 152.4 cm. ArtNet.com Figure 20 Andres Serrano, The Morgue (Death By Drowning II), 1992. Plexi-glass mounted Cibachrome print, 125.73 x 152.4 cm. ArtNet.com Figure 21 Andres Serrano, The Morgue (Jane Doe, Killed by Police), 1992. Plexi- glass mounted Cibachrome print, 125.73 x 152.4 cm. ArtNet.com Figure 22 Andres Serrano, The Morgue (Infectious Pneumonia), 1992. Plexi-glass mounted Cibachrome print, 101.6 x 82.6 cm. ArtNet.com. Figure 23 Fred Scrutin, Exhibition Photograph of The Morgue at The New Museum, New York.
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