Patty Carroll has been known for her use of highly intense, saturated color photographs since the 1970’s. Her recent project, “Anonymous Women,” consists of a 4-part series of studio installations made for the camera, addressing women and their complicated relationships with domesticity. The artist writes the following on the works in this series.
My work is about entangling women and home, leading to the phrase “housewife.” All of the photographs are reimagined interior spaces of rooms filled with décor and objects, featuring a lone figure of a woman, engulfed in her interior. She is both a victim of her possessions and obsessions, as well as the invisible creator of such; both satisfying and problematic, pathetic and humorous. Her home has become a site of tragedy and danger, with scenes of hilarious and heartbreaking mishaps. I use a female mannequin to stand in for the “perfect” woman, as she never has issues of aging, weight gain, acne or other normal human complexities.
My intention with the work is to bring attention to unseen heroic women who silently run a home, family, and often careers. The figure symbolizes so many women, no matter what culture or background, with roots in consumer culture. The photographs emphasize how ordinary things provide continuity and tradition, yet become overabundant and problematic. While humor is very important in these narratives, the message behind them has darker implications about the role and identity of women in all societies.
In this exhibition, objects used in the photographs are also on display as either part of the image, or separately shown. Since household “things” are prominent in their meaning and imagery, we have set them out as a small game in the everyday life of the Anonymous Woman.
