The artist Susanne Junker, has embraced themes of gender identification, the objectivization of women & mediatic perversion of feminine sexuality in her work. While the inherent violence and suppression of women in contemporary media, as a self-engendering dichotomy within an industry predominantly male, are far from original themes in contemporary photography, the debased and intimate self-portraiture of the artist denotes an ironic, grotesque treatment of the subject.

In close observation of the ongoing series, Figures for the base of a Crucifixion, the brutal and oppressive role of religious autocracy is depicted in staged creations; women of diverse origin portrayed by the artist as subject, robed in costumes which bear witness to the trans-national, borderless question of emancipation. Static, bound, constricted and labeled, the work is suggestive of predecessors of the feminist school, and the extremism achieves a definite shock value which, questionably appreciable amidst the plethora of similar treatments, holds visual appeal. That Susanne Junker is in herself the sole model in the work, whereby the frontiers of self-portraiture and subjective experience contrast and fuse with what appears to be an attempt to go beyond the self; to attain an objective retort wherein women regardless of origin may empathize with the personal/subjective, leaves ground for question.

The current work in progress, Me You Sex Friend Want, is less blatant than the title may suggest. The boldness of colour and frontal compositions familiar to the visual experience given by mass-media, found upon countless billboards and layouts of arts/cultural/fashion reviews, remain as in her previous work, yet the dimension of glass and plastic materials spattered, sprayed with foam, grease and unidentifiable matter further obscures the facial contortions of the artist. Artificial, crass & dramatic, the series appears as a "seduction fantaisiste", more intelligent than the bare stark self-portraiture which precedes its inception and current progress. Undoubtedly fresh, the multiplicity within the images allows for one to construe one's own interpretation, a distinct evolution from the force and parallel violence of the staged imagery by which the artist had originally sought to address that of the industry she is so well acquainted, being herself a former model, and survived.

Essentially, the photographic work of Susanne Junker is cathartic, humorous and violent in effect. Her trajectory is one wherein the role of subject/object, identity and transfiguration of medium revolve, intertwine and are re-cast in a conscious manner. Unfortunately, while the pivotal device of oscillating to and from established or fixed visual iconography-which she has sought to challenge- of women, embodying the same formal vocabulary in her staged self-portraiture, one might evaluate that rather than a rupture with the perversion and vulgarity of the portrayal or women by mass-media and the "victimization" of the fashion world in real terms on both the physical and psychological landscape of women, conversely, her work is somewhere testament to the legacy of that sphere upon contemporary photographic art.

To quote McLuhan, "the medium is the message", while the sincerity of the artist is unquestionable, the relative naivety or brutal force latent in her work leaves one in doubt as to whether or not Susanne Junker has in truth rid herself of the oppression of women inherent in our society in her implementation of the same dialectic, rather than having achieved a more insightful, profound sense of liberation. Regardless, she remains an engaging presence, the interplay of themes, her personal courage behind and before the lens attests in itself the necessity of challenge, and while I believe her work to yet fully mature on either aesthetic or formal fronts, the dichotomy wherein she has become her own echo, an experience mirrored in her abandon from the fashion industry, perhaps best relate the "inescapable" vice of pre-conception in gender portrayal in this age.

Her earlier series, Biest and Interview, reveal a more complex and engaging treatment of topical issues in portraiture and staged creations. The former, consistent and re-iterant, shows the artist in extreme close-up while clutching sparse scraps of paper between her teeth. Coy, random, the simplicity of the work holds charm, while easily acknowledgeable as the fruit of one "born" of the industry, the pop-iconography and classical imagery depicted upon each torn shred of paper is a light-hearted stab, preferable to the use of self in costume or exaggerative cosmetic stances as a reflexive paradigm of the media at large. "Interview" displays the artist in portrait, yet entirely bound in newsprint, sheets which reveal the words, "she loves me, she loves me not", the physical postures recall the bourdoir photography of the turn of the century, and the newsprint mannequin is later seen bathed in amorphic fields of colour, the "nude" descends in a pervase manner, eroticism and "voyeurism" are at a balance, extenuations of themes central to the discourse of photography since its first experiments: in this work the simultaneous evolution of the exploitation of the image, of societal machinations and the evolution of the art are of greater conceptual strength. Exquisite in rendering and seductive to the eye.

In survey of her auto-portraiture, from the seminal experiments to the more narrative series of stage creations, sensual and trivial aspects in the depiction and interaction with the artists conscious or subconscious states are manifest. The visual simulacra and employment of props and peripheral materials employed, identical to those found in the fashion industry, serve to render the imagery accessible to the mass-public, yet revealing a personal nauseum; disgust and rejection portrayed in relentless stereotypical stances fixed in time. Susanne has often established visual curtains comprised of Magazine covers and advertisements as the backdrop for her self-portraits, sensational in one regard, plagiarative in another. The audience is left to question the visual language employed: vehicule to further heighten an indictment of the milieu or a travesty which returns to an artist lacking experimentation, reiteration rather than innovation. Doubtless, the slogans, tape and bondage of herself in role of numerous preconceived "prototypes" of women refuse the pre-limitations of the artist, further illustrate our collective dependency on visual apparatus derived from the marketplace towards a depth interpretation of social themes, yet I find the series derivative. The creation of such a visual schemata divests the work of a more coherent representation of gender issues, accentuates deviance rather than a more resolute or penetrating examination of the themes at work in her studio.

"Pornographia" is a subjective and near lethal counterpoint in her work, while our society absorbs, celebrates and condemns its celebrity, what is at question? A denuded resignation or perverse accolade? It seems that Susanne Junker possesses the necessary experience, technical strengths and mastery of the studio in her staged creations, yet has yet to pierce the fabric rather than cast of interwoven segments in a highly subjective personal interpretation. While all visual histories have merit, it would appear that the strength of her artistry has yet to develop and perhaps in future we shall observe less bold play and extreme pageantry with the given themes and in their place, an artist able to truly surpass the conventions she has sought to challenge.

stageBACK - 0, Groupshow, April 2008, stageBACK gallery Shanghai / CN

Moonriver MOCA, Groupshow, BCDF at Moonriver MOCA sculpture park opening, May 2008, Beijing / CN (catalogue)

Aplanat Galerie, CHINA, Groupshow, July 2008, Hamburg, GER (catalogue)

Papiermachermuseum, Dimension Fragile, Groupshow, July 2008, Oesterreichisches Papiermachermuseum Laarkirchen Steyrermuehl - Austria (catalogue)

Geiles Globales Gesicht, Soloshow, stageBACK Shanghai @ 696, Shanghai, CN

Our life, Groupshow, Groupshow Nov 8 - Dec 8 2008 - Curated by Wu Wenxing - Wen Ding Plaza /No.204 Wen Ding Road, Shanghai, CN (catalogue)

Susanne Junker is currently represented by Acte 2 Galerie, 41 rue d'Artoise, Paris, France. +33 (0) 1 42 89 50 05 www.acte2photo.com

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