Yvonne Todd: Creamy Psychology
Victoria University Press, Wellington, 2014
RRP: $50 NZD
Yvonne Todd’s solo exhibition Creamy Psychology held at City Gallery Wellington marked the first time that the entire gallery had been handed over to one artist. Running from 6 December 2014 until 15 March 2015 and including over 150 photographs, Creamy Psychology showcased the New Zealand artist’s work from the late 1990s to the present. Todd’s strange, off kilter photographs are populated by highly styled individuals cast as characters, including cult members, Christians, anorexics, heiresses, cosmeticians. The artist predominantly photographs women, who are often heavily made up and transformed by wigs, costumes and even fake teeth. Despite her background in commercial photography, these images are defined by their imperfection, they are never quite right.
Creamy Psychology was accompanied by an equally comprehensive publication of the same name. Published by Victoria University Press with assistance from Creative New Zealand, it is the largest body of writing around the artist to date. In it, Creamy Psychology curator and publication editor Robert Leonard has commissioned a series of essays that, like the show, reveal the breadth of Todd’s practice.
Te Papa curator Claire Regnault’s essay ‘The Book of Timothy: Costume in Todd’s Photography’, focuses on the artist’s interest in costuming. Garments have been key in Todd’s work, particularly since the early 2000s, and an item of clothing often provides the starting point for a shoot, with Todd building a narrative around it. The artist scours second hand clothing stores and the internet for glamorous pre-loved gowns worn by celebrities like Whitney Houston and Liza Minnelli. A selection of these dresses was presented in the exhibition space alongside the photographs they feature in, like the coral Bob Mackie number complete with vulval split worn