Stomboli revisited

This is a picture of the collage created by me using Ingrid Bergman's famous still photograph from the film Stromboli. In the film she plays the role of Karin, a Lithuanian WW2 refugee who meets and marries a man from Stromboli. The film(Rosellini,1950) portrays the isolation and disillusionment she experiences once she is on that volcanic island. She feels herself to be a prisoner of circumstance and finds release only when the volcano erupts and she flees the island for good.

Circa 2013, the context changes but the perspective remains the same. Bergman appears almost consumed by newsprint, her expression one of extreme vulnerability and possible isolation. It is as if the all-pervasive character of post modern media is leaving her isolated, helpless and without respite. I have deliberately shown the collage as representative of press clippings on her face, a disembodied, engulfing media being reflected back at her- maybe from a laptop, a tablet or a google glass?

I argue through this work that the postmodern woman in 2013 is as vulnerable as the modern woman of 1950. In the later case, it is society, represented by her volcanic prison, that isolated her. In the former, it is her media saturated environment that leaves her puzzled, distressed and alone. Whether then or now, each person is trapped in her own Stromboli.

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