Annette Messager

Annette Messager is labeled by the MoMA as one of the most important contemporary artists working in Europe. A lot of her work constantly deals with personal identity and this exploration posted is no different. In her works, she is always supporting the idea that "all things give off potent expression" of whatever it is they stand for. In this case, Messager analyzes the expression of something written and how it stands for more than what it really is, a name.

Messager begins her instructions by tossing around the idea of people being given names. The instructions are to write your signature on many different pieces of paper and frame them in order to put them on display to evoke a reaction out of their viewers. This performance i found rather interesting because of the individuals direct attachment to the output and the fact that I have debated before on whether or not i approve of my own signature. When I first had to sign something I must had been pretty young because my signature started as "Tommy McKeever," now not that I have a problem being called "Tommy" i just always felt that Thomas was more formal and would look better in my signature. However to this day, with many attempts, I cannot get away from signing my name Tommy McKeever, probably because of this really cool thing I do with my "Y". Either way, signing my name in that fashion has seemed to cause me to think of what people think of me when they look at my signature so obviously signing your name is an important part of culture for identification purposes. At the end of the description and the examples, Messager writes that she would like feedback on how women feel about their signature if they change their name. Although I can't specifically relate to this, it causes me to rethink the idea of identification in a name and how much importance really lies in a signature.