2 photographs, colour, on paper
Tate Collection
Works with images
General Collection
Tate American Fund
Collection
<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/sharon-lockhart-6007" aria-label="More by Sharon Lockhart" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Sharon Lockhart</a>
Maja and Elodie
Presented by the American Fund for the Tate Gallery, courtesy of the American Acquisitions Committee 2012
actions: postures and motions
adults
ambiguity
appropriation
artifice
children
domestic
Elodie
emotions, concepts and ideas
fine art and design, named works
formal qualities
furnishings
girl
Hanson, Duane, sculpture, ‘Child with Puzzle’, 1978
Hanson, Maja
individuals: female
interior - non-specific
interiors
jigsaw
kneeling
leisure and pastimes
named individuals
objects
people
photographic
playing
portraits
recreational activities
repetition
rug
toys and models
universal concepts
woman
<p><i>Maja and Elodie</i> plays with notions of doubling and duration. The work is a diptych comprised of two photographs of a young woman interacting with Duane Hanson’s sculpture <i>Child with Puzzle </i>(1978). The sculpture depicts Hanson’s daughter Maja sitting on a rug and making a jigsaw puzzle. Lockhart photographed the woman sitting on the rug across from Maja, as if she is solving the puzzle with her. There is an almost imperceptible difference between the two photographs where the woman has moved her hand placing a piece from the puzzle.</p><p><em>Gallery label, December 2006</em></p>
paper print 2 photographs colour
27 November 2006 – 8 April 2007
2007-04-08
Tate Modern (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/
2006-11-27
New Acquisitions Dec 06
Collection based display
Maja and Elodie
displayed: 1210 × 1615 mm
Presented by the <a href="/search?gid=999999976" data-gtm-name="tombstone_link_bequest" data-gtm-destination="list-page--search-results">American Fund for the Tate Gallery</a>, courtesy of the American Acquisitions Committee 2012
<p><i>Maja and Elodie</i> is a large colour photographic <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/d/diptych" title="Glossary definition for 'Diptych'"><span>diptych</span></a>. The work was produced in an <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/e/edition" title="Glossary definition for 'Edition'"><span>edition</span></a> of six plus two artists’ proofs; Tate’s copy in the first in the series. The two <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/photograph" title="Glossary definition for 'Photograph'"><span>photographs</span></a> comprising the work are almost identical; they appear to show a young girl and a young woman sitting on a small blue Persian carpet in an otherwise empty but grand interior. Spread out between them on the carpet is an unfinished jigsaw puzzle. The carpet rests on a polished wood floor and the egg-shell blue wall behind the figures features elaborate painted panelling. In the left-hand image the woman’s hand extends towards one of the pieces of the puzzle; in the photograph on the right she lifts it slightly off the carpet. The almost imperceptible shadow beneath the puzzle piece in the second image marks the only change between the two images. This minor distinction adds a temporal element to the static compositions, suggesting the passage of time.
<br/>
<br/>Although both characters in the photographs appear life-like, the child is in fact a <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/s/sculpture" title="Glossary definition for 'Sculpture'"><span>sculptural</span></a> element in an artwork by the American <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/h/hyper-realism" title="Glossary definition for 'Hyper-Realism'"><span>hyper-realist</span></a> sculptor Duane Hanson (1925-96). The girl, the rug and the puzzle are components of Hanson’s <i>Child with Puzzle</i>, 1978 (estate of the artist). The life-size sculpture represents Hanson’s daughter Maja wearing a pink sundress and with a ribbon in her hair. The figure of the girl was <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/c/cast" title="Glossary definition for 'Cast'"><span>cast</span></a> from life and meticulously constructed in polyvinyl while the other elements of Hanson’s sculpture are <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/f/found-object" title="Glossary definition for 'Found object'"><span>found objects</span></a>. <i>Child with Puzzle</i> is currently on loan to the American Embassy in Paris, where Lockhart staged the <i>Maja and Elodie</i>
photographs.
<br/>
<br/>Lockhart’s photographs extend questions raised by Hanson’s uncannily detailed sculpture. By incorporating Hanson’s piece into her own work, Lockhart calls into question the veracity of the photographic image. The stillness of the photographs enhances the realistic qualities of Hanson’s work, making it difficult to discern the difference between the woman and the sculpture of the girl. The work’s title conveys a sense of equality between the two figures, suggesting no distinction between the image of the woman and the image of a pre-existing image of the girl. The almost exactly duplicated images highlight the reproductive nature of Lockhart’s chosen <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/m/medium" title="Glossary definition for 'Medium'"><span>medium</span></a>. The similarity of the two photographs invites the viewer to discern the tiny differences between them in a manner reminiscent of a childhood game.
<br/>
<br/>Lockhart has extended her engagement with and <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/a/appropriation" title="Glossary definition for 'Appropriation'"><span>appropriation</span></a> of Hanson’s work. <i>Maja and Elodie</i> relates to Lockhart’s four-part photographic work <i>Lunch Break installation, “Duane Hanson: Sculptures of Life,” 14 December 2002 – 23 February 2003, Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art</i>, 2003, in which gallery staff are depicted interacting with the figures of construction workers in Hanson’s sculpture <i>Lunch Break (Three Workers with Scaffold)</i>, 1989.
<br/>
<br/><b>Further reading:</b>
<br/>Dominic Molon and Norman Bryson, <i>Sharon Lockhart</i>, exhibition catalogue, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, 2001.
<br/>Karen Moss, <i>Sharon Lockhart + Kelly Nipper: 2 Artists in 3 Takes</i>, exhibition catalogue, Walter &amp; McBean Galleries, San Francisco Art Institute, 2000.
<br/>Jan Tumlir, ‘Sharon Lockhart’, <i>Artforum</i>, vol.42, no.5, January 2004, pp.159-60.
<br/>
<br/>Rachel Taylor
<br/>July 2004</p>

Summary
2005-12-22T00:00:00
summary
SHORT_TEXT
<p><i>Maja and Elodie</i> plays with notions of doubling and duration. The work is a diptych comprised of two photographs of a young woman interacting with Duane Hanson’s sculpture <i>Child with Puzzle </i>(1978). The sculpture depicts Hanson’s daughter Maja sitting on a rug and making a jigsaw puzzle. Lockhart photographed the woman sitting on the rug across from Maja, as if she is solving the puzzle with her. There is an almost imperceptible difference between the two photographs where the woman has moved her hand placing a piece from the puzzle. </p>

Display caption
2006-12-15T00:00:00
display-caption
DISPLAY_CAPTION
actions: postures and motions adults ambiguity appropriation artifice children domestic Elodie emotions, concepts and ideas fine art and design, named works formal qualities furnishings girl Hanson, Duane, sculpture, ‘Child with Puzzle’, 1978 Hanson, Maja individuals: female interior - non-specific interiors jigsaw kneeling leisure and pastimes named individuals objects people photographic playing portraits recreational activities repetition rug toys and models universal concepts woman