Book Review -When A Man Loves A Woman -Molly Matalon
Book Review-When A Man Loves A Woman-By Molly Matalon
Review by Timothy LeBlanc
The works in the wonderful new publication, When A Man Loves A Woman, by Molly Matalon are deceptively simple images but reward the viewer, pulling them deep into each, intimate and soft, but very much composed, image. The book lets you in to Matalon’s life, with work being shot over five years, yet it is not simply a diary project because she controls the story from start to finish. Though it is not a diary, When… is extremely personal as all of Matalon’s work is, a topic that comes up in most interviews with her. She has shared, “If it’s not personal I’m not really interested in the work.” While this was said in 2016 before When…was even a project, this sentiment serves to greatly inform her relationship to the works in this volume.
In a 2019 podcast, done by C41 about on a show of her work in Milan, she stated that, during the time she was working on this book, she was interested in producing “lustful” images or pictures of “romantic fantasy”. While When… is not safe viewing for a work setting (unless you work in an art museum…), it is incongruous to think of “lustful” as meaning sexual. Take the image that comes early on in the book, Justice On My Blue Couch In Los Angeles With His White Sock, 2018, a personal favorite of mine. The titular Justice is naked for sure, but he looks back with kind eyes at Molly and, by proxy, the viewer. He looks almost surprised, like he has been caught doing something but he isn’t worried, just amused by it. What appears to be lusted after is this familiarity that Matalon puts on display here – we see Justice in front of us and can read the tattoos that adorn parts of his body not normally shared with everyone. It feels specific between Matalon and Justice but one can easily draw parallels to shared intimacies in their own life.
Then there are the portraits like Tim's Silhouette On The Beach In Northern California, 2015, where the subject is seemingly unaware of Matalon’s presence. In contrast to Justice…, this image is more about looking wistfully at a body or person, regardless of the particular relationship between Matalon and Tim. The lighting is a romantic, soft, golden yellow that makes a viewer stop when they come across it in the book. In the age of COVID-19, it is doubly effective, as one fantasizes about the human contact and time spent with people we desire in both private and public settings.
In addition to the portraits, When… contains a good number of beautiful still lifes that operate well in tandem with the portraits. There are photos of fruit and flowers, classics of still life for the whole of the 500+ years the genre has existed, but Matalon’s works look at these subjects in different ways. The watermelon has been hollowed out with no more flesh to give; a peach is rendered as just the pit that has been sucked on; the grapes are haphazardly set in a much too small bowl, spilling into a neighbouring glass; and the flower buds are yet to bloom but all are still awash in romantic light. Instead of the subjects being presented at their peak, they either have potential or have already been used. One longs for what is yet to come or what they once had, like a new crush or a past relationship.
At the end of When…, there is a small but impactful piece of writing, I Keep It To Myself, by Chelsea Holden. Written specifically for this catalog, it is a small piece of fiction that reads like poetry. Two- or three-line non sequiturs, about a man and a women and desire that feels perfectly at place within this catalog. Holden’s writing speaks to how men and women look at each other and what they “lust” for in “romantic fantasy.” In just a few words, she is able to explore what it means to look and how that varies based on who is doing the looking, a relationship that artists have with viewers as well. So, with that context, I will end with a section of Holden’s text that puts it best:
But you are not necessarily passive – you look, too. You pose, hoping to appeal, anxious to be admired, to do well. You open yourself to me as part of our agreement. This invitation to vulnerability contains its own kind of power. Women know that most of all.
When A Man Loves A Woman by Molly Matalon, with an essay by Chelsea Holden, was published by Palm* Studios of London in a first edition limited to 700 copies. It is available at their website.