Artist research

 Stacey Greene  

Stacey Greene is an American artist spanning a range of media, although I'm mainly just interested in a particular series of photographs. The lipstick photos are a series of close up photographs of used lipsticks. These images were taken between 1991 and 1993 and are the lipsticks of Greene's close friends and acquaintances. 

These images show how these everyday commercial products become altered and uniquely changed through everyday routine and ritual. Each titled with the name of the owner, these photos give us a brief glimpse into the life of the lipstick wearer, it offers us something deeply personal but also hugely ambiguous. Recently these images went viral on Instagram, decades after they were first shown connecting with a whole different audience. As they re surfaced on Instagram, a social media platform, the audience that found them compared to her original audience would of been vastly different. The Instagram audience it would have reached would have a limited deeper artistic understanding and simply connected with these images for the relatable human quality, captivating their curiosity with this glimpse into other peoples everyday. 

This idea of a person being seen through their personal belongings is my main focus for my current work, I'm just exploring a slightly different angle but I believe Stacey Greene to be a prominent inspiration when researching these ideas.