(My voice is very quiet because I don't have any good recording equipment, sorry!)
(There are also long gaps of silence that appeared when I exported and I don't know how to fix it, sorry again!)
We are in the Tate Museum in London, looking at Jeff Wall’s famous work, “Mimic” made in 1982.
Wall made this piece as part of his street picture collection that was mainly focused on “micro-gestures”,
 
which is an unconscious action and he wanted to highlight the tensions of that time.
“Mimic” was inspired by a scene of racial abuse that Wall witnessed on a Vancouver street.
The piece is 2 by 2.3 meters, and there is something that can be said about this size that Wall chose.
By making it life size, it confronts the viewer with the feeling of actually being there within the scene
and facing this act of casual racism, just like Wall did on that Vancouver street.
It’s an aggressive image, and Wall wants the viewer to see that.
However, there is a question in the viewer’s minds, as to why Wall chose the title “Mimic”?
Mimic is truly an interesting title to choose for this photograph.
One could think it is the racist gesture the white man is making towards the Asian man, as if mimicking his eye shape,
but there is much more to it than that. It is important to note the language within these characters.
While the white man is mocking the Asian man with his “squinty-eye” gesture
(may we also note the use of his middle finger while pulling back his eye)
the actual physical features between the three figures are mirrors.
Their legs are in similar stages of walking,
and the clothing and hairstyles of the men are almost exactly the same.
All three have expressions of disgust on their faces, but the causes to elicit that disgust are all different.
The Asian man side-eyes the man mocking him, while the woman looks away in distaste, either for her partner’s actions or the man he is mocking.
They are “mimic”ing each other.
However, the characters are not the only ones mimicking.
In true post-modernist fashion, Wall also takes inspiration from a previous artist: Gustave Caillebotte and his work “Paris Street: Rainy day” made in 1887.
The two pieces echo each other well. A couple on the street standing off to the right side, looking over to the left, with a lamppost creating a tangent line in the back.
However, Wall does something different, which is to insert a third character: the Asian man
And you can see here that Wall was being really intentional with his work. In fact, everything was intentional, because this photograph was staged.
The characters in the photo are actors who have been dressed and posed to get this specific shot. It’s actually very interesting what Wall did.
He used the rules of cinematography to take a photo, and then backlit it using the same technology billboards used.
Wall wanted this effect that combined many aspects in post-modernist fashion, but also the feeling that this scene is happening right in front of you, and express the reality of the world we live in.
(Music)
