Francesca Woodman: Zigzag

My first trip to the Tate Modern was love at first sight. I remember thinking I was going to be bored like all the other school excursions, but I couldn’t have been more wrong. After walking around for about 20 minutes listening to my art teacher all excited about some modern light installation, I decided to wonder off. It was then I came across Francesca Woodman. There were just a few of her photos on display, but it was enough to get me hooked. They left me inspired and wanting more and I became an avid fan. I started following the Tate, hoping that one day there’d be a full exhibition. Then the email finally came, “Coming soon Francesca Woodman: Zigzag exhibition.” My patience had paid off.

Zigzag, displays rare works that haven’t really been seen before. The exhibition is entitled Zigzag because every piece is a collection of angles, formed by legs or arms, fabric pleats or unhinged doors. And while Francesca is nearly always present, it’s her limbs and torso we see most often, not her face. These images reveal not only a talent for storytelling but also for composition, and for light and shade.  The one I love most consists mostly of a huge pleated curtain, on top of which are balanced three large, decaying leaves. Woodman has been pushed into a corner by this weird construction: we see only an elbow and half of her face; her eyes are cast down. It would seem deathly, funereal, if it wasn’t for the fact that over the whole thing there falls, like a blessing, a bright rectangle of sunshine.

There is something so subtle about her photos, so charmingly odd, that my fingertips tingle when I see them. They make me feel covetous, and strange, and somehow powerfully female. The exhibition will be on display until March 26^th and I highly recommend you visit. Please don’t miss it.