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From skyscrapers to treetops: social connectivity in the work of Barbara Morgan
Plank, Hannah Kayley,author.
Plank, Hannah Kayley,author.
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2018
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Abstract
Barbara Morgans 1959 photomontage Hullabaloo presents an intriguing grouping of children, a dancer, and a city crowd. Rather than seeking to situate Morgans works more broadly within photographic history, this thesis will contextualize Hullabaloo within Morgans oeuvre to show that the various domains of Morgans photography, including her New York City photomontages, her Camp Treetops project, and her ongoing fascination with dance, are not discontinuous, but rather depict a shared attempt at societal order. Both in Hullabaloo and in Morgans overall body of work, control of society, control of nature, and personal bodily control appear as themes and also interact to show the complexity of humans methods for ordering their world. Both the city and the summer camp provide built frameworks to organize human lives and create cohesion, while dance promotes connectivity through a shared bodily experience. From garden rows to city blocks, humans seek to order their surroundings, including nature, while spectral, organic forms such as a leaf and a shell provide a counterpoint to this human-made rectangularity. In this light, the diverse imagery in Hullabaloo contributes to the unity of Morgans works from throughout her career by serving as a gateway work that interrelates themes of social connectivity and order.
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1 online resource (vii, 58 pages) :
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Art