Maria Friberg: The Myth of Power
When I saw Maria Friberg’s huge photograph blown out
for the first time, I remember how fascinated I was by the
poetry and beauty of the image: A solitary, naked man in wild,
foamy waters. Even if only his head and shoulders stuck out
of the foaming waters, he though seemed strong and well trained
– to me it was an image of strength and freedom. I wondered
whether being in the white foam was as relaxing as being wrapped
in by feather light clouds. But at a closer glance I started
wondering whether this lonely man in the immense
White Ocean was joyfully playing in this powerful element
or if he was possibly in danger? Was he fighting to keep his
head over water? Was he able to stand on the bottom? After
a while the image began to reveal its scary and darker sides.
Was the man in control or being controlled by the strong forces
surrounding him? This other side becomes even more visible
in the video version of blown out. In the 35 second looped
projection, the man is moving in the water in slow motion.
Here even more the context, the environment seems to take
over, even if the man’s face does not reveal any feelings
of anxiety or abandon. That the projection is large scale
is a very important aspect of this video work. The viewer
is drawn into and becomes part of this forceful scenery and
gets a feeling of the ambiguity and of how little even a strong
man is in relation to the mighty forces of nature. Rusty Freeman
called blown out “a powerful and brilliantly simple
representation of man versus his context”.
In almost there – a series of five large-scale photographs
the powerful element of water is used once again: Four men,
dressed in buttoned-up business suits, float in a dark blue
swimming pool. The men in their suits wearing even their shoes
create a surrealistic view. Why are they in the pool and not
sitting around a conference table as in somewhere else? (somewhere
else is a very well known photograph by the artist). In Maria
Friberg’s art, men surround us. Ver y often they are
young urban professionals, dressed in business suits - the
uniform and symbol for the modern, successful man who is powerful
and in control. Placing these men fully dressed in water means
exposing them into an environment that they cannot control.
How do they react? They are not actively swimming in the swirling
water - they rather seem to keep themselves at the surface
in order not to drown. None of the four shows any emotion
and there is no eye contact or communication between them
– everyone seems to have enough to do with himself.
As always in Marias Friberg’s work the title does not
define the image but rather broadens the possibility for interpretation.
In the case of almost there, what does the title indicate?
That the men in the pool have reached the surface again? That
they have nearly achieved their goals? Could the image be
read as a humoristic metaphor for the yuppies that went under
in the IT stock market crash of 2000, with the assumption
that they would not drown but again reach the surface? The
images of this series are playful, absurd and comical. Maria
Friberg is also playing with the language of advertisement
photography; but she never draws simple conclusions. Maria
Friberg researches the world of men in her art – a world
obviously very different from that of women – even in
our day of equal rights. Brought up in an environment where
women were the strong and reliable forces in life –
Maria Friberg was told that men were not worth the trouble.
This awoke her curiosity.
Since the second half of the 90’s she has examined the
conditions surrounding masculinity and their various relationships
to the myth of power and control. How do males communicate?
Does the strength and security they often exhibit mirror their
inner strength? How do “they” construct their
identities and how do “their” structures of power
function?
Maria Friberg’s photographs and videos are mostly staged,
and carefully arranged. She often places her protagonists
in environments where they are not in control anymore, as
in almost there or in blown out. No time to fall, 2001 can
be regarded as a psychological study. It is a five minutes
video loop based on George W. Bush’s first speech to
the nation held 2001 and transmitted by CNN. With his blue
suit, red tie and white shirt, Bush is carefully dressed in
the colors of the American Flag that forms the background.
The setting indicates that Bush is performing in his function
as an official person; as the president of the United States.
Maria Friberg did not stage this speech, but she carefully
edited it. We normally listen to the words in a speech and
do not focus consciously on the nonverbal aspects of communication.
Here, the artist eliminates all words and controlled verbal
messages – all rituals of rhetoric and power. No time
to fall focuses on Bush’s
body language, his unconscious and uncontrolled gestures and
peculiarities such as his typical lip movements. Maria Friberg
is confronting President Bush’s intention to be seen
as an official person in this public speech, with his most
personal, private attitudes. She confronts the public and
the private identity so that the personal signals become the
message. In spite of the powerful attitude; the dress, the
consciously decided background– the opposite of control
becomes apparent. By making the vulnerable, insecure masculine
psyche visible in one of the world’s mightiest men,
the myth of power and control is again revealed as but a staged
male game.
Aware but still there, consists of two large scale photographs
showing a strange couple: a man and a huge black Great Dane.
The dog is as black as the man’s dark suit. In many
ways the two, placed in front of a white background, are very
similar. In the first image, the dog is lying on the man’s
stomach – the man and dog look in-to each others’
eyes almost like lovers carefully watching each other. The
saying comes into my mind: “A dog is a man’s best
friend”. Or has the dog control over the man? In the
second photograph, the man and the dog are sitting in the
same position on their “back legs”. The man has
placed his hands as the animal does with its front paws. While
the dog’s head is turned towards the man, it is looking
at the viewer at the same time. The man is looking straight
ahead out of the picture without showing any emotions. With
aware but still there Maria Friberg creates a humoristic,
and at the same time, mysterious and multi layered image about
male strength and the animal in man.
In dream mile, a video from 2002 the artist researches male
performance. The camera follows a young man on a jogging tour
along the Hudson River in New York City. But he is not only
jogging – he is also singing loudly an aria out of Mozart’s
The Marriage of Figaro. The young opera singer gives the impression
that jogging and singing is joyful and easily combined. He
is trying to make it look effortless. Again a myth of power:
In a powerful man’s world everything is supposed to
look very easy and natural - no matter how big the effort.
Even if Maria Friberg concentrates mainly on the subject of
men in her art, it is also a research dealing with her own
identity as a woman. Why do we – both men and women
– behave the way we do? Which social codes and conventions
lie behind our behavior and shape the way we interact? In
our times of constant change, in contemporary art, questions
of identity-construction are highly discussed issues.
Emerging in the 70’s American Cindy Sherman (born 1954)
is perhaps the most famous artist, who explores stereotypes
of women and how female self-images are created. According
to Cindy Sherman “the male half of society has structured
the whole language of how women see and think about themselves.”
In her Untitled Film Stills from the late 70s, the artist
features herself in various guises of female clichés
known from postwar American films of the 50s and 60s: She
appears as the chic starlet at her seaside hideaway, as the
luscious librarian or the domesticated sex kitten. And even
if the characters are invented we have the feeling that we
already know them. Rosemarie Trockel (born 1952), one of the
most important contemporary artists in Germany, explores the
role women play in the male dominated art world of to-day,
in her paintings, drawings, sculptures and video works. In
her knitting paintings from the 80’s.Trockel combines
the female handy craft of knitting, with the motives and emblems
of a male world of power and control, such as the Playboy
Bunny, Hammer and Sickle or the Woolmark. While industrial
production aims at mass production, Trockel’s Knitting
paintings are industrially knitted originals. By playing with
hierarchies, her art is a critical, intelligent and often
humoristic dialogue with male art and male values, from a
female point of view.
In her most recent work, the two-channel video projection
painted view, Friberg researches the male gaze in the encounter
with the woman. On the first we see a young beautiful woman
“painting” her face with make up to be as attractive
as possible for the male admirers in her job as a party hostess.
On the second, a video camera attached to the young woman’s
body is filming how the rich, young males at a fashionable
hotel pool in Miami Beach look at her. They watch her, try
to charm her or curiously reflect whether they might have
a chance to catch her interest. Painted view renders visible
the male game of power and sexual attraction. Maria Friberg
is a careful and curious observer of social behavior. Her
simple but complex images unveil unseen sides of masculine
identity. The artist does not moralize or judge social behavior.
Her multilayered visual allegories offer instead new readings
of social stereotypes and codes.
Iris Müller-Westermann
Moderna Museet, Stockholm
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