Untitled, Providence, Rhode Island
- Artist: Francesca Woodman
- Date: 1975–8
- Medium: Photograph, gelatin silver print on paper
- Dimensions: image: 109 x 109 mm
- Museum: Tate Modern
- Collection record: Tate Modern website
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About this artwork
This is “Untitled, Providence, Rhode Island” by Francesca Woodman. It’s a black‑and‑white gelatin silver print, just over 10 centimetres square, capturing a fleeting moment in a cramped studio space. In the frame, Woodman hovers on the far right, her hands resting on her thighs as she leans slightly forward. Long, horizontally‑striped stockings cover most of her legs, and her bare body is blurred by motion—her hair whipping across the frame, obscuring part of her face and left breast. To her left hang a collection of dresses: one on a nail‑lined beam, the others tacked to a rough wall. A wide‑framed mirror sits on the floor at the bottom left, cropped half out of the shot, reflecting objects behind the camera. The image was taken while she was a student at RISD in Providence, 1975‑78, a period of intense self‑portraiture. Woodman’s blurred presence speaks to the tension between body and space, and the mirror hints at her playful self‑reflexivity.
See it in person
Untitled, Providence, Rhode Island is in the collection of Tate Modern on Bankside, London — free to enter. Point your phone at any artwork there and audioguide.london plays a free audio guide in six languages — no app download needed.
