hanging in front of the clock

The outline of a woman’s breast is visible through the thin fabric of a tight-fitting shirt, and the clock in the background has just passed twelve o’clock. The black-and-white polaroid image which forms the basis for A K Dolven’s photogravure hanging in front of the clock was taken during a performance in her studio, for which she hung suspended from a pole.
Dolven’s image undermines the presumed documentary function of photography: the image provides little information about the original performative context in which it was taken. Instead, the simple but effective composition, in which the outline of the breast echoes the circular shape of the blurred clock in the background, possesses an aesthetic integrity in its own right.