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(above) McMurdo 'Helen,
Sheffield 1996',
1997 (2)
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"McMurdo focuses
upon the characteristics of a child's engagement with the unknown and
thus with the adult world." Claire
Doherty
Wendy McMurdo works
with traditional photography and computer technology to produce pictures
of children who seem slightly 'out of this world'. Her images exist somewhere
between fact and fiction. Like the work of American documentary photographer,
Helen Levitt, these photographs represent moments of play or reverie where
the children are isolated from the world of grown-ups. But
they are not simply the documentation of a child's world. Many have the
formal look of a dramatic set piece and hark back to historical portrait
painting conventions. In addition, McMurdo uses digital techniques to
manipulate the image, deliberately removing or emphasising certain elements
to undermine the apparent objectivity of the photographic image and to
highlight the subject.
DOPPELGÄNGER
The German word 'Doppelgänger' literally means 'Doubler' and refers
to a fearful, mythical creature who selected a person at random to watch,
mimic and eventually replace, without anyone knowing. In McMurdo's 'Doppelgänger'
series, each child is digitally 'doubled' (literally copied and pasted),
so that they become twins. These digital mirror images act out scenes
of curiosity, cooperation or competition where each child becomes the
other's playmate or rival, They remind us of the imaginary playmates we
might have had as small children. More disturbing is the idea that the
figures might represent the good and evil (Jeckyll and Hyde) sides of
the ourselves, here battling out for control of the child's future. Because
of the tendency for parents to dress identical twins in identical outfits,
these images look familiar, if a little strange. But closer inspection
reveals that these children are not merely similar but actually cloned,
identical in every detail. With recent scientific developments in genetic
engineering, how do we feel when looking at the possibility of human clones?
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The scenes played
out by these imaginary twins take place in a theatrical setting
- the children stand out in the darkness brightly lit against the
deep red curtains and the black stage shadows. Here they take on
an air of eery performance, all alone but aware that someone or
something is watching...
THE COMPUTER
CLASS
In the Computer Class series (right) the children are no longer
playing with their doubles but are lost in concentration, staring
out at an unseen screen, manipulating invisible controls. The intensity
of their gaze and the studied nature of their poses help us believe
in the thing at which they are staring - the computer - even though
it is clearly not there.
This series
is interesting because it implies that the children while physically
present are mentally somewhere else, no longer aware of either their
surroundings or any viewer. This moment of rapture has echoes in
a past when, in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, children
were believed to be innocents, closest to God and heaven. But it
also relates to recent popular culture which links children and
young people to unexplained events or 'paranormal' behavior and
strange beings - from poltergeists to aliens.
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(above) McMurdo 'Computer
Class, Edinburgh II',
1997 (3)
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OUT
OF THIS WORLD...
The
children in McMurdo's images are often so wrapped up in their own activities
that they seem removed from the rest of us. McMurdo enhances this feeling
by removing or cloning elements of the scene making it seem weird or uncanny.
- What
would you do or make, inspired by this artist's work?
- Many
films have used the subject of children with unusual powers - for instance
Poltergeist, Carrie, Sixth Sense and The Innocents. What magic powers
would you like to have? Use the 'magic' of computer technology to visualise
the results of your powers...
- The
figures in these images seem spellbound or frozen. This 'freezing of
the moment' is a feature of all photographs . Investigate the ways photography
cuts a slice out of time and stops motion. Play with different shutter
speeds to see what impossible images you can produce.
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(above)
McMurdo 'The
Somnambulist',
1995 (4)
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