My interpretation

After doing this research into the background of this image, Olympia as Lewis Carroll's Xie Kitchin as a Chinaman (off duty) has found new meaning for me. When I first examined the structure and set up, I imagined it was something to do with Papapetrou's heritage, that maybe she had some kind of Chinese background that she was trying to pay homage to. But now that I found she was re-staging the works of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson in his photos of Xie Kitchin in the late 1800's, the photo has taken on a whole new meaning.

I feel as if Papapetrou is trying to present issues that relate to herself and Olympia. Having worked with her daughter for many - if not most - of her projects, the artist seems to have developed her work into a combination of childhood fantasy and adult behaviours. This is very clear in this photo in particular. As I mentioned before, she may have been trying to make the audience consider how inventive Olympia's imagination was with the use of a clearly fake backdrop. Using the quite adult-looking costuming and posing, it makes me feel like she is wanting us to compare the girl's porcelain features to the quite grown-up surroundings.

Something else that is present is perhaps the desire for Papapetrou to see herself in the image. This was brought up by Rex Butler in his article "On Polixeni Papapetrou". He states:

"What Papapetrou is fundamentally looking at, what she is trying to find, is herself looking back. And what more profound disguise than one's own daughter?"

I think it's quite possible that the artist was attempting to represent her own childhood - and possibly her  adulthood - by using the gaze of her daughter. In the image, she was trying to convey that sense of knowing where her life was going and how adulthood can be pushed upon children. Butler also adds: 

"When one looks at one's child, is it oneself or it is another staring back?"

 Could Papapetrou be trying to inflict her personal life onto that of her daughter's? Could she be trying to show the audience how her own mind works using a child's innocent face?
Either way, being able to do this research has enabled me to see a different side to Olympia as Lewis Carroll's Xie Kitchin as a Chinaman (off duty). And, at the conclusion of my assignment, I have learned to appreciate it much more than I did when I saw it in Geelong Gallery so many times!



Butler R 2001 "Polixeni Papapetrou", 2001, viewed October 6, 2012, http://polixenipapapetrou.net/text.php?txt=RB_PolixeniPapapetrou&cat=On_Polixeni_Papapetrou

Themes and Concepts

 Fig. 1: Papapetrou's Olympia as Lewis Carroll's Xie Kitchin as Chinaman (off duty)

It's clear from looking at Olympia as Lewis Carroll's Xie Kitchin as Chinaman (off duty) that it needs to be looked at in a series rather than just by itself as this assignment requests. I visited Geelong Gallery a few months ago where the image was on display. It was presented in a large, old fashioned room with a number of other artworks that were included in the gallery's collection for that time. Personally, I felt that it wasn't the right surroundings for such a bright, modern-looking photo. I think perhaps if it was with the rest of the series Dreamchild it would be more clear to the audience what Papapetrou was trying to convey when she created it.

As a single artwork, Olympia as Lewis Carroll's Xie Kitchin at Chinaman (off duty) doesn't have extremely direct themes, other than the obvious play on childhood fantasy mixed with the adult world. The pose, costuming and setting are all very adult with Olympia's porcelain facial features. This relates back to what I mentioned about her almost mocking adult's sexual behaviours (as mentioned in Zara Stanhope's article "Serious Play"). There's an obvious play on the childhood innocence that Olympia has and the very adult scene that she's been placed in.

In Stanhope's article she makes a suggestion that Papapetrou could possibly be "discrediting Olympia's imaginative faith" with the fake, painted backdrop of a harbour. She implies that we are influenced to see this fakery as the limits of the girl's childhood imagination. I think this is quite a relevant point. It seems just too perfect with the set up of boxes that Olympia is perched upon to be close to what would be considered the "average child's" fantasy worlds. Her upright, straight pose and careful placement of cliche props seem almost too perfect to be believable. Perhaps Papapetrou did intend for her audience to wonder about her daughter's imagination. Perhaps she did mean for us to question how inventive some children's fantasies are.

It's also obvious that these props were used deliberately for the audience to make a conscious connection to the cultural background associated with her image. All the photos in the series Dreamchild were based off Charles Lutwidge Dodgson's originals, and the one that this particular image re-stages (Xie Kitchin as a Tea Merchant) has a set up that is very close to his.

Fig. 2: Dodgson's Xie Kitchin as a Tea Merchant

It's clear from looking at Dodgson's photo that he was using all very cliche Chinese mise-en-scene, in an attempt for his audience to immediately identify what kind of ideas he was bringing across. As this time was basically the beginning of studio portraiture as we know it, Dodgson was trying to really emphasise this idea of a cultural background. In Papapetrou's image, she followed this same set up. She deliberately chose clothing and a backdrop that today's western audiences would be able to recognise as being Chinese. It's almost as if she picked out the most cliche colours and patterns that she could to play on that idea of the very adult situation she had her daughter placed in.



Fig. 1: from Polixeni Papapetrou's website, viewed September 30, 2012, http://www.polixenipapapetrou.net/works.php?cat=Dreamchild_2003

Fig. 2: (Charles Lutwidge Dodgson image) from Art.com, viewed September 30, 2012, http://www.art.com/gallery/id--a82953/charles-lutwidge-dodgson-posters.htm?ui=4383641D2EF34DBE8AA95F85FD2AE9A6

Z. Stanhope 2003, "Serious Play" 2003, viewed September 30, 2012, http://www.polixenipapapetrou.net/text.php?txt=ZS_SeriousPlay&cat=On_Dreamchild

Dreamchild

Images from the series Dreamchild

Fig. 1: Olympia as Lewis Carroll's Beatrice Hatch before White Cliffs 2003 - subject to much controversy

Fig. 2: Olympia as Lewis Caroll's Irene McDonald (it won't come smooth) 2002

Fig. 3: Olympia as Lewis Carroll's Xie Kitchin (sleeping on chais) 2003

Fig. 4: Olympia as Lewis Carroll's Xie Kitchin as a Chinaman on tea boxes (on duty) 2003

Images taken by Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (Lewis Carroll) of Alexandra Xie Kitchin in the late 1800's

Fig. 5: Xie Kitchin as a Chinaman - 1873

Fig. 6: Xie Kitchin with a Japanese umbrella - 1873

Fig. 7: Xie Kitchin as a tea merchant - 1873

Fig. 1, 2, 3 & 4 from the series Dreamchild, Polixeni Papapetrou's website, viewed September 25, 2012, http://www.polixenipapapetrou.net/works.php?cat=Dreamchild_2003

Fig. 5, 6 & 7 (Charles Lutwidge Dodgson images) from Art.com, viewed September 25, 2012, http://www.art.com/gallery/id--a82953/charles-lutwidge-dodgson-posters.htm?ui=4383641D2EF34DBE8AA95F85FD2AE9A6

Z. Stanhope 2003, "Serious Play" 2003, viewed September 25, 2012, http://www.polixenipapapetrou.net/text.php?txt=ZS_SeriousPlay&cat=On_Dreamchild

About the artist

Fig. 1

• Australian contemporary photographer.
• Born in Melbourne in 1960.
• Lives and works in Melbourne.
• Studied many different degrees, including Master of Arts in Media Arts at RMIT Melbourne in 1997.
• Nearly 50 solo exhibitions nationally and internationally.
• Exlores themes including gender identity, sexualisation, childhood and human relationships (as addressed in Rex Butler's article on the artist, and in an essay written by Papapetrou regarding her series Curated Bodies).
• Known most for her series Between Worlds from 2009.

Fig. 2: The Wanderer 2009 - from Between Worlds

Fig. 3: The Loners 2009 - from Between Worlds

• Represented by Stills Gallery in Sydney, where many of her pieces are presented.

Fig. 3: Stills Gallery, Sydney

Fig. 1: Australian Centre for Photography 2011 flickr, viewed September 24, 2012, http://www.flickr.com/photos/acpgallery/5516462098/

Fig. 2 & 3: Polixeni Papapetrou's website, viewed September 24, 2012, http://www.polixenipapapetrou.net/works.php?cat=Between_Worlds_2009

Fig. 4: Stills Gallery, Sydney, viewed September 24, 2012, http://www.stillsgallery.com.au/gallery/

Stills Gallery, Sydney, viewed September 24, 2012, http://www.stillsgallery.com.au/artists/papapetrou/index.php?obj_id=about&nav=0

Butler R 2001 "Polixeni Papapetrou", 2001, viewed September 27, 2012, http://polixenipapapetrou.net/text.php?txt=RB_PolixeniPapapetrou&cat=On_Polixeni_Papapetrou

Papapetrou P 1996, "On Curated Bodies" 1996, published by the Centre for Contemporary Photography, 26 pages.

Introduction

An introduction to my Research An Image assignment for Photography Studies College. I'm doing Polixeni Papapetrou's photo Olympia as Lewis Carroll's Xie Kitchin as a Chinaman (Off Duty).

Fig. 1

As mentioned in the video, I never liked this photo. It was on display in the Geelong Gallery for a number of years so I've seen it a number of times. I wanted to know about what the themes and ideas behind it are so that I have better views about it.
At the moment, I see the image being about an exploration of a tradition (Chinese heritage). The props Papapetrou has used all look fairly typical for what I would imagine when I think of that kind of culture, with the vibrant reds and blue and floral patterns. I feel that the artist is expressing perhaps part of her own heritage in the making of this image. She may have some kind of Chinese influence in her history and the photo is her way of paying a homage to that background. As it has fairly typical scenery for what you'd expect from Chinese traditions, I think she used them deliberately to make her audience immediately identify what it is she's trying to bring across.



Fig. 1: Olympia as Lewis Carroll's Xie Kitchin as a Chinaman (off duty), Polixeni Papapetrou's website, viewed September 14, 2012, http://www.polixenipapapetrou.net/works.php?cat=Dreamchild_2003