My topic for the Thematic Research paper is going to be on Rimma Gerlovina and Valeriy Gerlovin, I will be discussing self-portraits and the incorporation of language in them. Rimma Gerlovina and Valeriy Gerlovin are for the most the art, their work consists of photographs of both of them or one or the other. In their self-portraits they use creative writings, drawing, or control of the body to demonstrate thoughts and ideas. Language is mostly seen in their work “Photoglyphs”, language and the portrait become one. Rimma Gerlovina was born in Moscow Russia in 1951, and went to The Moscow State University, Valeriy Gerlovin was born in Vladivostok Russia in 1945 and he studied at The Stage Design Department of The Moscow Art Theatre. They …show more content…
In this photograph we have Rimma and Valeriy together in what seems like a cold, stiff, almost embrace, this time around Rimma’s hair is tied back and invisible since it blends into the black background, her eyes still looking directly at the camera or us the viewer. Valeriy to the right bottom side leaning on her, with his eyes shut as if asleep, his nose connects to her jaw. There is a drawing on their faces which connects to each other’s faces, the word odd is displayed though not in its traditional way. The word isn’t even in a letter format, the O becomes a swirl, if it wasn’t for Valeriy’s other part of the word, there would simply just be a swirl on Rimma’s face which seems to mock her round face shape or perhaps it’s the universe? Their Language plays different roles and games with the mind, things aren’t what they appear but that’s merely on purpose for which they want you to realize what could exist, what exactly does odd define on this photograph? Perhaps odd as in 1,3,5,etc or as in odd behavior, out of the normal. At first glance I believed the image titled odd meant something like odd people just the perfect couple, but as I read on I saw that word can also become a drawing or even a number! Is the O on her face really an O or is it a zero, oval, or