Though born and
educated in the United States, Francesca Woodman’s aesthetic interests and
sensibilities lie in European modernism. Woodman grew up with a deep love for
Italian culture; learning to speak fluent Italian after spending her summers
and early childhood living outside Florence. These photographs are from a
series of performances Woodman made during her year studying abroad in Rome.
They feature the artist slithering around a bowl of eels.

Woodman had no interest in commenting on images
of mass culture or exploring popular identity. Instead her focus on enigmatic
and surreal visions of the body, the patina of classical mythology that infuses
her photographs, and her emphasis on traditional photographic technique
distinguish her work from that of other self-performance artists of the 1970s.