Ellie Martin

The following magazine project addresses the sexualized, feminized content of advertising images aimed at both male and female consumers. In the appropriated magazine, the slick appeal of the contrived objects recalls a heavily manicured and feminized landscape.

Here, a set was created using heavily painted and glossed, cut styrofoam, turf grass, and 25 lipsticks, and photographed and then inserted into a men’s magazine (Maxim) and a woman’s magazine (Glamour not pictured) via a two-page pullout. The appropriation of the female (sexual) body is part of a long tradition of constructing desire in the consuming body, yet the complicity and participation of women in our own objectification contributes to the efficacy of this advertisement.

The following image presents a project involving three decorating magazines I purchased from a drugstore. I designed and constructed three sets of stuffed deer pairs (male and female) and matching pillows in toile, paisley and floral fabrics as well as a wooden yard ornament covered with faux fur. These objects were used to create different “interiors” which were photographed and then seamlessly inserted into each magazine. One magazine featured consumable products – each pair of deer was priced at $49.95 and included matching pillows. One magazine was placed back on the drugstore shelf, one in a clinical waiting room and one in a break room.

There is humor in the stuffed deer product and its transition -- from its traditionally ascribed function as a fiberglass yard decoration for the exterior of our homes -- to a complementary accessory for our living rooms. Inherently symbolizing nature, this transition from outdoors to indoors reveal a glaring discrepancy in our desire to possess nature -- but only in its most artificial form.

By co-opting these magazines, their advertisements, and audience, this piece offers a critique of consumer culture -- consumers, advertisers and their images. Clearly, the truth of an advertising image -- the product it represents and its worth -- depends on the culpability of consumers.

The four following images are taken from a larger series of photographs in homage to the late feminist artist, Ana Mendieta. The objects I wore as adornment were hand woven from natural materials from the immediate setting, including White Pine needles, Fox Tail (invasive weed), Juniper branches, Queen Anne’s Lace (invasive weed), and Big Blue Stem (native prairie plant).

The next four images are from Playhouse, an installation piece. The walls and trim are painted with American Tradition bright chartreuse and celery tint. The framed images on the walls were collaged using home decorating and fashion magazines and green craft papers. These images feature interiors decked with fashionable “accessories”. The sitting area in the installation is constructed to allow the viewer to reflect on the interior decoration of the room(s).

The following slide presents the process of making and critique of a 38-layer wedding cake. In order to address and demonstrate the abstract idea of the commodification and incorporation of intimate life exemplified by the traditional American wedding, I constructed the icon of the perfect wedding in the female form to demonstrate the precedence of consumption over the intimate demonstration of love. The literal consumption of the female body (cake) by the participating audience symbolizes our collective complicity in the commodification of private life – complicity that is paved by pursuing the imperative, yet exciting details that perfect the wedding in the attempt to make it the happiest (most expensive and appropriated) day of our lives.

The above images illustrate a project installed in a University of Illinois greenhouse from November through December 2003. The work involved the sowing and growing of 60 square feet crop of wheat grass. The installation consisted of a kitchen table covered with wheat grass grown from seeds inside of an imaginary room symbolized by the curtains of a kitchen window and a simple doorway.

The significance of the setting of the UIUC greenhouses, the research projects housed there and the reputation of the College of Agriculture, Consumer and Environmental Sciences (ACES) at this land-grant institution all lend perspective to the importance of agriculture to the local economy. The migration away from and the abandoning of small family farms like my maternal Fisher/Foosland, IL relatives to corporate agribusiness contributes to a decline in self-sufficiency and an increased dependence on corporate control.

This project invites the participation of local farmers, educators and citizens in a conversation on the influence and contribution of the College of ACES on our agricultural community and the impact of agricultural research and genetic engineering in the culture of American farmers.