We acknowledge the Traditional Owners of the land on which the Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art stands and recognise the creative contribution First Australians make to the art and culture of this country.
Yvonne Todd / New Zealand b.1973 / Fleshtone (from ‘Cabin fever’ series) 1997 / Type C photograph on paper, ed. 1/3 / 25.4 x 20.3cm / Purchased 2007 through the Queensland Art Gallery Foundation Grant / Collection: Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art / © Yvonne Todd
Yvonne ToddFleshtone (from ‘Cabin fever’ series) 1997
Not Currently on Display
The ominous Fleshtone 1997 from the ‘Cabin fever’ series further explores a filmic sensibility in Yvonne Todd’s practice. In this photograph, she resists the smooth surfaces of made-up and Photoshopped skin, presenting a blemished female hand deliberately framed against wet bathroom tiles.
The work evokes the sinister viral infection overtaking the teenagers of Eli Roth’s 2002 horror flick Cabin Fever, while simultaneously suggesting the infamous shower scene from Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho 1960. Todd is interested in achieving a controlled sense of suspense in her imagery and cites Hitchcock as an important reference. Like Hitchcock, Todd simplifies her photographic compositions, forcing her viewer to attend to the morbid detail beneath the shine of appearances.
Referencing aspects of popular culture through a kitsch and retro aesthetic, Yvonne Todd draws inspiration from the staged qualities of commercial studio portrait photography.
A sense of both eerie and compelling melodrama is created in Todd’s work through her use of props, such as wigs, false eyelashes, period dress and other accessories, which express her fascination with the artificial and unsettling aspects of the everyday, exploring the underbelly of beauty.