Jemima Stehli

Artra, Milan
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At first glance, this exhibition might appear to be a mere homage to the female body, to its soft and sinuous shapes; an investigation into the power of seduction and into the clichés attributed to women, seen as that “obscure object” of desire and of male fascination.

In Jemima Stehli’s photographs however, the nude body is actually the integral part of a visual game based on illusion, on a skilful perspectival disorientation. Inspired by some outstanding characters from the history of art and photography—among them Francis Bacon, Allen Jones, and Helmut Newton—the artist stages scenes in her studio, which are captured in her balanced photographs.

The key element and common denominator in the images is the mirror, which is placed ideally in the same position, and which then becomes the observation point of the spectator. In the recent series "Mirror 1, 2, 3" (2001), Stehli places the accent on fragments of her own body that, although they are in close-up, are out of focus. In fact, it is her entire figure that stands out, reflected in the mirror, and overall her extremely free and natural posture at the moment of the shutter’s release.

Unlike her previous series “The Strip Series” (1999-2000)—in which the artist invited collectors, critics, and important gallerists to witness her perform a striptease and then photographed their reactions—here Stehli creates a forced relationship with the spectators, imagining their reactions in an attempt to expose an enigma, to solve a puzzle.

The nude body of a woman—that of the artist, dressed only in a pair of high-heeled shoes—incarnating the imaginary collective, paradoxically passes by nearly unnoticed. Stehli gives us a lesson in narcissism and in Lacanian memory on seeing ourselves while observing ourselves.




Daniele Perra
Translation by Amanda Coulson