Critique on Kirstie laird

Critique on Kirstie laird

Orange Girl

I chose to critique and analyze the works of Kirstie Laird. I liked the variety of her works, and the bright, brilliant colors in most of them. I think the one that fascinated me most, however, was “Marionette” because it didn’t have any of the orange colors or motifs prominent in her other works. This puzzled me, since the title of her showing was “Orange Girl” and every other picture in the showing fit the title well.

I found Laird’s works quite similar to those of Judy Dater. Their finished products aren’t too similar for the most part, but their reasons for the pictures they take are nearly identical. Laird’s series “investigates the ways in which we define ourselves through social roles, dress and physical markers, both natural and applied.” This sounds very much like what Dater wishes to convey in her self-portrait sequence “in which she dressed and posed herself as stereotypes of certain kinds of women.” Both women take special pains to use themselves as models (not an easy feat, I know from experience!). Not only that, they change costumes and props in every picture to convey the character they are becoming. In a sense, they are actresses, and each picture is a separate role for them. How well they fit the roles? That is a matter of opinion. I found each role they wished to convey was portrayed quite well. As different as each ladies style is, I still found some pictures I thought were quite similar in many respects.

Laird’s “Kitchen” and Dater’s “Ms. Clingfree” were two pictures I thought were similar. If you laid the two side by side, you would see nothing in them that was remotely similar. One is of a young attractive housewife sitting on the kitchen counter, cheerily showing off the fruit bowl. The other is of an older housewife, perhaps one who has been married many years and is starting to feel the stress taking its toll on her. In that sense, the pictures are of the same person (a housewife) as she goes through the years. Laird shows her when she is happily married and everything is sunny and bright. Dater shows the woman after the years have taken their toll and she is tired of it all.