Action - Gesture, 1980

The photographic series comprises several three-part ‘sets’ composed according to the same rule. The first photograph in a set shows a female model putting on or taking off a garment: bra, panties, tights. The second image repeats the composition as the naked model performs the same action, but this time only pretending to be holding a garment. In the final photograph, only hands performing the gestures from the former two are shown against a black background. Devoid of their descriptive attributes – the woman’s body and the pieces of clothing – the hand gestures become abstract. This reduction of composition to a seemingly empty gesture is a reference to the "Gesticulations" series, which the artist had concluded in 1978, and to the ‘empty sign’ theory.