These images are from my newest photographic series, real/unreal. It is a series that, as of now, is still a work-in-progress. There is more to photograph and much editing to do.
I have become fascinated with the concept of representation; the realization of inanimate objects created to appear as the real thing. For years I have been drawn to wax museums, amusement park décor, disguises and costumes. I am amused by the idea that some people prefer artificial flowers to the real thing, for reasons as simple as, like my own mother has stated, ‘not wanting the mess’. But life, I find, is messy.
While working on my cinematic series, Memory Play: an Homage to Tennessee Williams, I came upon older films where Caucasian actors were playing Asians, blacks and Indians despite the fact that there was hardly a dearth of minority actors in Hollywood. Today, we would be appalled at the idea of blackface or Asian makeup on screen, yet when a heterosexual plays a gay person we hail them as ‘brave’ or ‘courageous’ and shower them with awards. Is it the idea that it is less challenging, or ‘less messy’ as it were, to watch a representation of a gay person than to contemplate the reality that this person is a homosexual and consider what that means to one as a viewer.
It was with the same attitude that I began to photograph dead animals that I would happen to come upon, as a contrast to the plaster or resin versions that I’d been shooting. I received the same kind of reactions to those I showed them to and this brought up the same questions for me. Why do people accept lawn ornament deer or even a taxidermy version but recoil at a photograph of an actual animal who has recently been drained of life, despite the fact that the image is without blood or gore?
This is what I have set out to question and explore, the messy side of life, the real and the unreal.
Frank Mullaney / October 2010
