Laurie Simmons
Encyclopedia
Laurie Simmons is an American
artist and photographer currently working in New York
.
in 1971. Simmons lives and works in New York City
and Cornwall, Connecticut
with her husband, the painter Carroll Dunham, and their two daughters, Lena and Grace.
Simmons’ first mature works, shot in 1976, were black and white images taken in a dollhouse, un-peopled variations on each room in the house, particularly the bathroom, using sunlight and different angles to create a “dazzling, dreamlike stage set.” She then added a housewife doll into a kitchen set, and "...photographed the figure over and over in various positions--standing and sitting at the table, at the counter, in a corner, standing on her head with the kitchen in disarray. The mood is dramatically different than in the bathroom views."
In 1978, Simmons began shooting the figures in the dollhouse in color, to create the "Early Color Interiors" series. At that time, color photography was "...more commonly associated with the artifice of commercial photography while black-and-white was perceived to be more truthful. By using the techniques and processes identified with advertising, fashion, and film, Simmons linked her work to a realm of suspended belief--the realm of fantasy and fiction that sustained many of her memories and longings."
Simmons had her first solo show at Artists Space, a non-profit gallery in New York, in 1979, showing the "Early Color Interiors". A few months after this she exhibited work at P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center.
In 1980, Simmons began showing at the gallery Metro Pictures in New York.
In the early 1980s, she created the series "Color-Coordinated Interiors", which used Japanese dolls called Teenettes, monochrome toys of women who Simmons photographed in front of rear projection images of interior decorated rooms. The dolls matched the color theme of the rooms.
The series that followed was "Tourism," in 1984, which also used the "Teenette" dolls, but showed them in groups visiting famous places around the world, including the Eiffel Tower
, the Pyramids, the Parthenon
, and the Taj Mahal
. This series investigated the mediation of these places through photography and media instead of real experience. "She used the same strategy to shoot the "Tourism" series as she used for the "Color-Coordinated Interiors," populating unrealistically pristine postcard views with her dolls via rear projection. The figures are color-cued to the background scene, which was often unintentionally monochromatic due owing to the poor quality of the slide." The slides were collected by Simmons from tourist shops and museum collections.
In 1987, Simmons visited the Vent Haven Museum
in Kentucky and over a period of a few years photographed various dummies and props there, resulting in the "Talking Objects" series.
Simmons had a mid-career retrospective at the Baltimore Museum of Art in 1997.
Also in 2001, Simmons began her "Instant Decorator" series, which was based on a 1976 interior decorating book of the same name, that provided templates of household rooms for the client to fill with swatches of fabric and paint samples. The series features works that are collage-like and opulently filled with accessories and characters in dramatic mises en scène.
In 2008, Simmons collaborated with the designer Thakoon Panichgul to create fabrics for his Spring 2009 line. The pattern featured a variation on Simmons' series "Walking & Lying Objects" from the late eighties, which involved various objects that are animated with legs in different positions. The fabric for Thakoon's line was based on legs paired with a rose.
Simmons also used objects on legs in her series "Walking & Lying Objects" from the late 1980s. The first work in this series is a work from 1987 titled "Walking Camera I (Jimmy the Camera)," of Simmons's friend and former roommate, the late artist Jimmy De Sana
, wearing an old-fashioned box camera costume. The later photographs that follow use miniatures and small doll legs. "As she animates the objects, Simmons plays out various roles. Her transformed women parade across a simulated stage as if in a fashion show or a musical, wearing the accoutrements with which they are identified."
Simmons starred in a feature-length film by her daughter Lena Dunham, called Tiny Furniture
, which was filmed in 2009 and was featured at the South by Southwest
film festival in 2010. The film won the Jury Prize for Best Narrative Feature.
In 2009, Simmons began a new series called "The Love Doll," featuring a lifesize doll from Japan. This series documents the ongoing days in the doll's life.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
artist and photographer currently working in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
.
Personal life
Laurie Simmons was born in Long Island, New York, in 1949. She received a BFA from Tyler School of ArtTyler School of Art
The Stella Elkins Tyler School of Art, usually just referred to as Tyler School of Art is Temple University's school of art, which confers BFA and MFA degrees. The school was originally founded by sculptors Stella Elkins Tyler and Boris Blai on a separate 14-acre estate in Elkins Park...
in 1971. Simmons lives and works in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
and Cornwall, Connecticut
Cornwall, Connecticut
Cornwall is a town in Litchfield County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 1,434 at the 2000 census.In 1939 poet Mark Van Doren wrote "The Hills of Little Cornwall", a short poem in which the beauties of the countryside were portrayed as seductive:The town was also home to the Foreign...
with her husband, the painter Carroll Dunham, and their two daughters, Lena and Grace.
1970 - 2000
Since the mid 1970s, Simmons has staged scenes for her camera with dolls, ventriloquist dummies, objects on legs and occasionally people, to create photographs that reference domestic scenes.Simmons’ first mature works, shot in 1976, were black and white images taken in a dollhouse, un-peopled variations on each room in the house, particularly the bathroom, using sunlight and different angles to create a “dazzling, dreamlike stage set.” She then added a housewife doll into a kitchen set, and "...photographed the figure over and over in various positions--standing and sitting at the table, at the counter, in a corner, standing on her head with the kitchen in disarray. The mood is dramatically different than in the bathroom views."
In 1978, Simmons began shooting the figures in the dollhouse in color, to create the "Early Color Interiors" series. At that time, color photography was "...more commonly associated with the artifice of commercial photography while black-and-white was perceived to be more truthful. By using the techniques and processes identified with advertising, fashion, and film, Simmons linked her work to a realm of suspended belief--the realm of fantasy and fiction that sustained many of her memories and longings."
Simmons had her first solo show at Artists Space, a non-profit gallery in New York, in 1979, showing the "Early Color Interiors". A few months after this she exhibited work at P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center.
In 1980, Simmons began showing at the gallery Metro Pictures in New York.
In the early 1980s, she created the series "Color-Coordinated Interiors", which used Japanese dolls called Teenettes, monochrome toys of women who Simmons photographed in front of rear projection images of interior decorated rooms. The dolls matched the color theme of the rooms.
The series that followed was "Tourism," in 1984, which also used the "Teenette" dolls, but showed them in groups visiting famous places around the world, including the Eiffel Tower
Eiffel Tower
The Eiffel Tower is a puddle iron lattice tower located on the Champ de Mars in Paris. Built in 1889, it has become both a global icon of France and one of the most recognizable structures in the world...
, the Pyramids, the Parthenon
Parthenon
The Parthenon is a temple on the Athenian Acropolis, Greece, dedicated to the Greek goddess Athena, whom the people of Athens considered their virgin patron. Its construction began in 447 BC when the Athenian Empire was at the height of its power. It was completed in 438 BC, although...
, and the Taj Mahal
Taj Mahal
The Taj Mahal is a white Marble mausoleum located in Agra, India. It was built by Mughal emperor Shah Jahan in memory of his third wife, Mumtaz Mahal...
. This series investigated the mediation of these places through photography and media instead of real experience. "She used the same strategy to shoot the "Tourism" series as she used for the "Color-Coordinated Interiors," populating unrealistically pristine postcard views with her dolls via rear projection. The figures are color-cued to the background scene, which was often unintentionally monochromatic due owing to the poor quality of the slide." The slides were collected by Simmons from tourist shops and museum collections.
In 1987, Simmons visited the Vent Haven Museum
Vent Haven Museum
Vent Haven Museum is the world's only museum of ventriloquial figures and memorabilia. The museum is in Fort Mitchell, Kentucky, just 5 miles south of Cincinnati, Ohio....
in Kentucky and over a period of a few years photographed various dummies and props there, resulting in the "Talking Objects" series.
Simmons had a mid-career retrospective at the Baltimore Museum of Art in 1997.
2000 - Present
In 2001, Simmons designed, with the architect Peter Wheelwright, an interactive modernist dollhouse called the "Kaleidoscope House." The house was decorated with miniature artwork and furniture by contemporary artists and designers.Also in 2001, Simmons began her "Instant Decorator" series, which was based on a 1976 interior decorating book of the same name, that provided templates of household rooms for the client to fill with swatches of fabric and paint samples. The series features works that are collage-like and opulently filled with accessories and characters in dramatic mises en scène.
In 2008, Simmons collaborated with the designer Thakoon Panichgul to create fabrics for his Spring 2009 line. The pattern featured a variation on Simmons' series "Walking & Lying Objects" from the late eighties, which involved various objects that are animated with legs in different positions. The fabric for Thakoon's line was based on legs paired with a rose.
Simmons also used objects on legs in her series "Walking & Lying Objects" from the late 1980s. The first work in this series is a work from 1987 titled "Walking Camera I (Jimmy the Camera)," of Simmons's friend and former roommate, the late artist Jimmy De Sana
Jimmy De Sana
Jimmy De Sana was an American artist, and a key figure in the East Village punk art scene of the 1970s and 1980s. His photography has been described as "anti-art" in its approach to capturing images of the human body, in a manner ranging from "savagely explicit to purely symbolic"., William S...
, wearing an old-fashioned box camera costume. The later photographs that follow use miniatures and small doll legs. "As she animates the objects, Simmons plays out various roles. Her transformed women parade across a simulated stage as if in a fashion show or a musical, wearing the accoutrements with which they are identified."
Simmons starred in a feature-length film by her daughter Lena Dunham, called Tiny Furniture
Tiny Furniture
Tiny Furniture is a 2010 American independent comedy film written, directed and starring Lena Dunham, daughter of co-star, Laurie Simmons.It premiered at South by Southwest, where it won best narrative feature, and was released theatrically in the United States on November 12, 2010.-Plot:Aura...
, which was filmed in 2009 and was featured at the South by Southwest
South by Southwest
South by Southwest is an Austin, Texas based company dedicated to planning conferences, trade shows, festivals and other events. Their current roster of annual events include: SXSW Music, SXSW Film, SXSW Interactive, SXSWedu, and SXSWeco and take place every spring in Austin, Texas, United States...
film festival in 2010. The film won the Jury Prize for Best Narrative Feature.
In 2009, Simmons began a new series called "The Love Doll," featuring a lifesize doll from Japan. This series documents the ongoing days in the doll's life.
Books
- Walking, Talking, Lying Aperture, 2005. ISBN 1-931788-59-6
- In and Around the House CEPA Gallery, Buffalo, New York, 1983. ISBN 0-939784-046-8
- LS Laurie Simmons PARCO CO., LTD. Tokyo, 1987. ISBN 4-89194-155-3
- Laurie Simmons, Water Ballet/Family Collision Walker Art Center, 1987. ISBN 0-935640-23-1
- Laurie Simmons, San Jose Museum of Art The San Jose Museum of Art, 1990. ISBN 0-938175-10-6
- Laurie Simmons A. R. T. Press, 1994. ISBN 0-923183-13-2
- The Music of Regret The Baltimore Museum of Art, 1997. ISBN 0-912298-69-3
- Photographs 1978/79 Skarstedt Fine Art, 2002. ISBN 0-9709090-3-9
- In and Around the House: Photographs 1976-78 Carolina Nitsch Editions, 2003. ISBN 0-9740666-0-5
- Color Coordinated Interiors 1983 Skarstedt Fine Art, 2007. ISBN 0-9709090-6-3
Sources
- PBS: http://www.pbs.org/art21/artists/simmons/index.html
- Museum of Modern Art: http://moma.org/collection/browse_results.php?criteria=O%3AAD%3AE%3A7015&page_number=1&template_id=6&sort_order=1
- Metropolitan Museum of Art: http://www.metmuseum.org/TOAH/hd/pcgn/ho_2004.246.htm
- The New York Times: http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B0CE1DD103AF937A15752C1A9669C8B63&scp=1&sq=laurie%20simmons&st=cse
- The New York Times: http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9504E7D7143DF934A35755C0A9649C8B63&scp=3&sq=laurie%20simmons&st=cse
- The New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/20/arts/design/20wart.html?_r=1&scp=19&sq=laurie%20simmons&st=cse&oref=slogin
- Laurie Simmons: Color Coordinated Interiors 1983 New York: Skarstedt Gallery, 2007.
- Linkler, Kate. “Laurie Simmons: Walking, Talking, Lying,” Aperture Foundation, 2005