Laurie Simmons

Laurie Simmons is a photographer and filmmaker who unearths cultural restrictions within patriarchal, capitalist society. In the 1970s, Simmons began photographing uncanny domestic scenes of dolls in doll houses. Cropped in a cinematic fashion, the figures would lay bountiful meals on the table or tidy messy interiors, all whilst maintaining perfect hair dos, creaseless dresses and trim figures. Building on Simmons’s own upbringing in post-war suburban America, these stylised images exposed the artificiality of heightened gender stereotypes that proliferated in this period. During this era, Simmons became associated with The Pictures Generation and other artists such as Cindy Sherman, Barbara Kruger and Louise Lawler who were similarly using photography and image manipulation to lay bare the violence of cultural tropes. Simmons’s Walking Objects (1987-1991) series, tackled sexism and its entanglement with consumerism. In these surreal photos, inanimate objects such as globes, toilets and guns strutted and danced around, posing with toned legs in black stilettos. Referencing the loss of agency in capitalist society, these works heighten the bleak realities of consumer-oriented society. Simmons continues to make inquisitive, surreal films and photographic series which digest the intricacies of contemporary gender representation.