This work was one of five works form the Aspect Series in July last year. The source image is a film still from one of my favourite films Who are you polly maggoo? or Qui êtes vous, Polly Maggoo? from 1966. The film directed by William Klein is a satirical spoof on the Fashion industry. During the film a television crew follows around supermodel Polly maggoo as she dreams about falling in love and goes about her varied model related business. Polly is played my a model who was quite famous at the time Dorothy McGowan. She is rumoured to have disappeared from public view after the film and never acted or modelled again. The Film still I used here features Miss Maxwell, played by Grayson Hall, who in the film played an editor of a fashion magazine, modelled off of Diana Vreeland. Grayson Hall was a television, film and stage actress She was born Shirley H. Grossman in Philadelphia in 1922. She was widely regarded for her avant-garde theatrical performances in the 1960s-80s. She was also nominated for many awards for her role in the 1964 film The Night of the Iguana based on a screenplay by Tennessee Williams. I clearly used this image firstly because it was so striking. I also used it because women after a certain age tend to feature less frequently as subjects in contemporary art and I honestly cant see why.
Posted on: Sat, 24 Jan 2015 09:30:41 +0000