another scrap of paper
January 18, 2008
Originally uploaded by avuocolo
i found an old photograph in Time magazine of these little girls in “red riding caps” standing in a street in Germany, all sort of huddled together. there was a paragraph written about them, and it’s been a while since i’ve read it, but it made some claim that these outfits were in some French and German versions of Little Red Riding Hood (e.g. Le Petit Chaperon Rouge). i noticed the photograph because the girls were all huddled together-some looked really nervous, some looked like they were joking around, and there was just one who looked at the camera.
if you read deconstructions of Little Red Riding Hood, you’ll find a lot of feminist theory and imposed sexual symbolism and interpretation. it’s funny, because i drew the vagina in there way before i read any of this stuff. it sort of just came out. i was thinking about WWII, which was around the time this photograph was taken. hence the claustrophobic room with the abstract-expressionist wall.
the text, which is impossible to read, is this:
“during daylight hours, they could see the men hiding in the trenches. (whether or not they can see the teeth, they are still there). and in their house they saw no sun. saturday came and the girls dressed and tied their riding caps on tight. even though it was raining artillery fire, far off, they still went out to play. their mother had always said to make at least one public appearance a week, otherwise their beauty would be wasted on their living room walls.”
“and then who would remember them”
it feels strange for me to be making this text legible, because i usually purposely make my handwriting difficult to read, and kind of cringe at the idea of someone reading it. i’m trying to get over that, though, because text is meant to be read.
