Appearance
2023. HD video, from 4K. Silent. 49 mins 30 secs
In the video work Appearance, Young extends her long-standing artistic engagement with the law, developed over the past two decades. This silent, filmic portrait presents a series of fifteen UK female judges - diverse in seniority, age and ethnicity - in their judicial robes looking straight at the camera. Through almost forensic close-ups of hair, shoes, jewellery and regalia, the camera plays off the judges’ roles as powerful, self-possessed public intellectuals against their varied physical presence and the quirks of individual personalities.
Sitters including Dame Vivien Rose and Dame Ingrid Simler, Justices of the Supreme Court, display a mix of studied neutrality and a complex interiority. Stylistically poised between painting and photography, the piece draws inspiration from Andy Warhol’s Screen Tests, which was originally inspired by the New York Police Dept’s ‘most wanted’ posters. While countering the patriarchal culture historically associated with the law, Appearance places the viewer metaphorically in the dock, centring on ideas of judgement between viewer and judge, on judging as performance, and on the power relations between judge and camera. Projected at 6 metres wide, the piece takes on a sculptural, even architectural presence within a gallery space.
Appearance debuted in Carey Young’s solo exhibition at Modern Art Oxford, March - July 2023. Info and images here. The work was subsequently shown at Paula Cooper Gallery, New York, Jan - Feb 2024. Info and images here.
Video clips of Young discussing the work can be viewed here (90 secs) and here (4 mins 20 secs).
Selected press:
Young’s “Enduring fascination with justice and the law has yielded an outstanding new film in a riveting retrospective.” Laura Cumming, The Guardian, 26 March 2023
“The effect is uncanny (…) Seeing [the judges] express their own forms distinct of composure—and concomitant hints of humour, playfulness, inscrutability, or imperturbability— (…) gives new dimensions to the old maxim “justice must be seen to be done” and to our understanding of female power.” Toby Kamps, The Brooklyn Rail, June 2023
“An unsettling confrontation with embodied power. (…) the remarkable fact that Young convinced this array of powerful individuals to participate. They look at us via the mediation of the camera’s invasive gaze.” Martha Buskirk, Hyperallergic, Jan 2024
‘Striking in its monumentality". Cathy Wade, Frieze, May 2023
Further coverage:
Buskirk, Martha, ‘Carey Young’s Reflections on the Trappings of Power’, Hyperallergic, Jan 30 2024
Corwin, William, ‘Carey Young: Appearance’, The Brooklyn Rail, Feb 2024
Kamps, Toby, ‘Carey Young: Appearance’, The Brooklyn Rail, June 2023
Sheerin, Mark, ‘Carey Young: Appearance, Modern Art Oxford’, The Arts Desk, 15 June 2023
Jennings, Will, ‘Carey Young: Making Space’, Recessed Space, June 2023
'The Five Best Shows in the UK, June 2023’, Frieze, May 26 2023
Wade, Cathy, ‘Carey Young Takes a Portrait of Female Power’, Frieze, May 2023
Cumming, Laura, ‘Carey Young: Appearance review – the faces of female justice’, The Observer, 26 March 2023
Carey-Kent, Paul, ‘Carey Young, Interview of the Month’, ArtLyst, April 2023
'Placing the Viewer in the Dock’, Law Society Gazette, 17 March 2023
'Out of Court: Women of the Judiciary’, The Times, 16 March 2023
Acknowledgements:
The artist is grateful for the following support: Arts Council England, Modern Art Oxford Commissioning Circle, UCL Grand Challenges, UCL HEIF Knowledge and Innovation Fund, UCL Dean’s Award, UCL Judicial Institute & Paula Cooper Gallery, New York. With additional thanks to: The Lord Chief Justice, Ede & Ravenscroft, Slade School of Fine Art and Prof. Cheryl Thomas, UCL Judicial Institute.