All Dead Birds Are Female, 2019 by Nina Mae Fowler

Fowler’s work entitled All Dead Birds Are Female comprises two deliberately juxtaposed images split across a horizontal composition.  To the right we see an eager and willing Marilyn, still young and naïve to the future she faced -her youth and inherent charm is captured – at odds with the seediness of her surroundings. The images formed part of the batch bought from photographer Tom Kelley by Hugh Hefner who went on to publish them in Playboy Magazine without obtain­ing Monroe’s consent or informing her of the impending publication. To the left, chandeliers from a composition by British fashion photographer, Tim Walker feature, in Fowler’s hands the chandeliers sparkle in their broken glamour, like figures intoxicated in the aftermath of a privileged party, seemingly echoing Monroe’s curves.  The series title is taken from Joyce Carol Oates’s fictitious chronicle of Marilyn Monroe’s life Blonde. The novel treats Monroe as an emblematic figure in a discussion of fame, popular culture, gender and the American Dream.

Through her approach of crashing together apparently disparate images Fowler’s drawings elucidate on themes of exploitation, consent, and the manipulation of iconic women, in Monroe’s case a manipulation that was played out in the full glare of the media and heat of public speculation.