Paul Regnard
Grimace culture finally reached its peak with the development of self-portraiture, proving a certain madness, which had previously only existed in asylums, was now everywhere around us, in various amounts.
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The article argues that contemporary selfie culture is fully organized around grimaces, one type of face succeeding the other. After being recorded plenty of times, the “duck face” and “fish face” have become almost natural and socially acceptable. Article questions this assumption asking if these types of faces have not in fact already existed before. Grimace can be a result of an inner input, such as pain or madness, distorting our natural face, which then covers up the natural grimace as clothes do our intimate body parts. Thus, there are funny and less funny, socially communicative and mirror grimaces, there are meaningful ones and completely meaningless distortions of one’s face. Discussing the works of both artists and scientists, such as (among others) Anton Joseph Trčka, Alphonse Bertillon, Jean-Martin Charcot, Duchenne de Boulogne, Hannah Wilke and Sanja Iveković the article deals with the notion of the grimace as the posing in the intersection between public and private sphere.
- Keywords: burgeoisation of art, grimace, physiognomical science and art, selfie
Ana Peraica holds a Ph. D. in aesthetics of photography. After graduating from University of Zagreb, in fields of art history and philosophy, she became a researcher in art theory at the Jan Van Eyck Akademie, Maastricht, where awarded UNESCO-IFPC, In parallel she undertook three year doctorate course in cultural analysis, theory and interpretation at ASCA, University of Amsterdam and defended her thesis entitled Photography as the Evidence at University of Rijeka. She is an editor of the reader Žena na raskrižju ideologija (Split, HULU / Governmental Office for the Equality of Rights Split, 2007), Victims Symptom – PTSD and Culture (Institute for Networked Cultures, Amsterdam, 2009) and author of Sub/versions (Revolver Publishing, 2009). Her essays in domains of visual studies and media theory are/were published by many magazines and journals, such as Springerin, Pavilion, Fotografija/Membrana, Afterimage, Leonardo, etc.
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