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Artist Statement For Dear Eleanor, Stephanie Sultana U5034071

This artist statement describes a photography project titled "Dear Eleanor" based on a collection of love letters written to a woman named Eleanor Lenza in the 1950s. The artist was drawn to using archival materials and found objects in her work. She became interested in her own postcard collection and later found 34 letters written by 10 men to Eleanor from 1951-1958. The artist placed herself in Eleanor's position and created portraits of Eleanor based on descriptions in the letters as well as styles of photographs from that era. She also created portraits of the 10 men based on what was revealed about them in the letters. The installation combines these photographs with the original letters to preserve the memory of Eleanor and the men who wrote to her.

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Stephanie Sultana
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60 views1 page

Artist Statement For Dear Eleanor, Stephanie Sultana U5034071

This artist statement describes a photography project titled "Dear Eleanor" based on a collection of love letters written to a woman named Eleanor Lenza in the 1950s. The artist was drawn to using archival materials and found objects in her work. She became interested in her own postcard collection and later found 34 letters written by 10 men to Eleanor from 1951-1958. The artist placed herself in Eleanor's position and created portraits of Eleanor based on descriptions in the letters as well as styles of photographs from that era. She also created portraits of the 10 men based on what was revealed about them in the letters. The installation combines these photographs with the original letters to preserve the memory of Eleanor and the men who wrote to her.

Uploaded by

Stephanie Sultana
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

Artist statement for Dear Eleanor,

Stephanie Sultana U5034071



I am an emerging visual artist based in Canberra using photography as a tool to communicate
my ideas. At this stage in my art career I am more and more drawn to archival material and
found objects. Using this material as the stimulus, I then build my work around ideas
completing further research and developing my own understanding and perspective of the
material. Sophie Calle a French writer and photographic artist has been one of my main
influences for this work. She places herself in her projects responding to letters and other
material. She is able to captivate audiences and include them into her art practice.

Throughout the semester I began looking more closely at my own personal post card
collection. Post cards are such a personal artefact and often have intriguing information on
them whether it be telling mum theyll be home late for dinner or a poem courting a young
girl. Through this process I became drawn to the handwritten words on the post cards rather
than the image itself. From this point I broadened my search and looked online for some
letters to add to my growing collection of found material. Eventually coming across a set of
letter addressed to a young lady named Eleanor Lenza. There are 34 complete letters from
1951-1958 by 10 different men who are all captivated and intrigued by her, through their
correspondence they ask her for photographs of herself, ask how shes feeling and all eagerly
await to hear from her and to see her again.

I have titled this series and titled it Dear Eleanor and have created imagery responding to the
collection of letters. As I now own the letters I have placed myself in the position of Eleanor.
I questioned the mens intentions with her and made portraits of Eleanor and how I imagine
they would think about her. I have referenced photographs and posters of the time
particularly of Marilyn Monroe however still maintaining the information that I received
about Eleanor in the letters like her luscious brown hair and petite figure. It is interesting to
create these images of Eleanor because in these letters we never hear her voice. Researching
the techniques that were used to create photogrpahs in the 1950s I have hosen a flat carbro
colour palette for the Eleanors and black and whote portraits for the men. This creates a
hyper-relaity world where colour is used to create a dream and the black and whote shows
reality. This is similar to films such as the Wizard of Oz filmed about 10 years before the
letters were written. Similar to a poster wall in a bedroom the Eleanor portraits

To complement the Eleanors I have also created a representation of the 10 men and
constructed them from the other side of the words in the letters. To choose each model to
represent the men we only knew from their words, I searched the general public and people
around me for personalities that had similarities to the men in the letters. I feel that their gaze
is quite important for the work, as they seem to stare at Eleanor and at the viewers. Below
each of the portraits of the men are he actual physical letters from the men. The viewers are
invited to open and read the words that they have shared with Eleanor and see a glimpse of
this world.

I have created fictitious archive filled with truths and exaggerations combining history with
art. This archival installation preserves the memory of Eleanor and the 10 men who wrote
love letters to her.

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