marina font: selection from critical mass 2017

by geoffrey koslov | photo relevance

October 2017

Marina Font is an Argentine woman, now living in Miami, whose portfolio “Mental Maps” embraces a visual expression of the complex emotions and challenges of women in a very different way.  She wanted a tactile feel and dimensional visual expression to her images.   It is important to her to be engaged in the “construction” of the photograph beyond the image itself by using thread or gold leaf, vintage crocheted doilies or other materials and fabrics to give a three dimensional tactile appearance to her images to emphasize and illustrate her message.

Adding material to an image has been done before. For example, similar techniques can also be seen in the work of Iris Hutegger and Elene Usdin. 5  In these photographs, the incorporation of other media enhance the image, but do not replace it.  However, Font uses these materials to a different purpose from other artists.  Her materials replace part of the image, layering onto a recognizable photographic image.  In her image “Connections”, we see the head and shoulders of a woman, but not her eyes or the top of her head.  The body is in a very neutral position.  The pose is calm with lips that lack emotion.  In choosing a black and white image of the visible body, this person becomes more of a stage for a performance by the materials that Font chooses. The viewer is forced by the photographer to really pay attention more to what is incorporated into the photograph, than the actual photographic image itself.  That goes against our normal impression of what we expect a “photograph” to look like. The head is replaced by a very geometric arrangement of multiple colored threads. The arrangement of the patterns extend well beyond what we would expect the normal size of the head to be, implying perhaps that her thoughts are exploding on the inside.  That explosion imagery might mean a call for help, or of frustration or a need for self expression.  Because the threads are shown in such an organized manner, we do not have a sense of violent expression, but something more systematic. The title “Connections” give us a hint that this person is in thought.  Thinking.  We do not know what she is thinking about, but the use of multiple colors, expanding well beyond the size of what we would expect her head to be, might imply complexity and deep thought. When compared to others in the series, this image conveys the most calm and control of thought – a woman in control.

“Connections” – Image by Marina Font from the series “Mental Maps”.
Image used with the permission of the artist.

Capturing and realizing how one feels is part of Font’s upbringing.  Growing up in Argentina, she was exposed to constant conversation about Freud and psychoanalysis.  Perhaps that is why the pose of the model is very clinical, shown as a naked  body in black and white – covered by materials that are very colorful.  The body, almost as if laid out in a morgue for examination, is in the same pose in most all the images.  If not a full frontal body pose, it is the repeated use of a head and shoulders image.  Much of her work seems to connect a part of the body to another or a focus on a part of the anatomy or organs via the non-photographic materials added.  Some of the material, like the gold leaf, according to Font, was used because over time, and exposure to light, the material changes, as we change both mentally and physically with time.  She has several works that focus on the head and material exploding from or covering the head.  In some, the head is covered in gold leaf like a crown; in others, multicolored thread explodes from an eye or mouth, or a geometric pattern replaces where we would normally see the top of the head, as a metaphor for the brain.

Like Patty Carroll, Font takes hold of this examination of a woman’s emotion and challenges in a number of earlier portfolios.  In Mental Maps  (2014 – ongoing), Font acknowledges that this series builds on the work in “Dark Continents.”  “The construction of these mental maps evokes diverse psychological states and emotions with meanings that are in constant flux, never fixed, just like our identities.” Dark Continents (2012 – ongoing) was another “exploration of womanhood, a mystery in constant flux and evolving mutability.”  She notes that the physical work on the images are “engravings” that impart and reveal private thoughts, feelings and persona.  At the same time, the viewer is invited to contemplate as to what the images may mean, for themselves. The Weight of Things (2014-2015) examined how one relates to “memory, tradition and a life lived.” In The Weight of Things, she repeatedly used a weight scale to metaphorically challenge what value we put on physical objects.  The scale is there to provide a visual “measure” of objects “used, acquired, inherited, preserved” and the emotional meaning attached to those.

Font’s emphasis is on our identity, who we are, why we are and what we have to express to others.  While other artists may be more focused on external evidence of our selves, Mental Maps is an exploration of the internal workings in our minds, versus an outward physical expression through objects. Imprinted (2010-2011) was a series also commenting on the state of women in society. “Women have been, for generations, the keepers of our culture, bearing traditions on their shoulders.”  She adds the dimension of immigration in these images as she explores “immigrant memories” as to a “particular place or personal history to explore ideas about identity, gender territory, language and memory.”  El Contrato (The Contract) was “a series of photographs depicting a woman’s journey of self discovery and identity.” Womanhood  became a series of photographs that explore the evolution of womanhood as her body changes from youth to giving birth to children, and domestic responsibilities and changed roles.   If we study the photographer and what might have preceded her current portfolio of work, we gain a much deeper and rewarding understanding of what her art is now communicating, expressing and positioning. And, we learn that a photograph is not the end in itself.  Artistically, a photographer can extend their ability to express themselves using more than one media as Font has done here.