Sex, nudity, and androgyny; what do these topics have in common, besides being your run of the mill taboos? According to Hyewon Yi, the curator of the Amelie A. Wallace Gallery, each topic is spurned from the basic and innocent concept of the human body. “The body is what contains our soul… it carries yourself and who you are,” she continued to express when asked about the over-arching theme of the exhibition. Yi detailed that this exhibition was of personal interest to her, and that the focus was on individual freedom and self expression, no matter if it pushed the boundaries of social norms. It’s the basic artistic concept of baring your soul, and the medium of conceptualization is the raw human body. As such, the exhibition is aptly titled, “Conceptualizing the Body: Gaze, Masquerade, and Spectacle,” and features seven artists, whose work addresses cultural, social, political and gender identity issues.
Shuli Sadé’s ongoing photo-documentation project Urban Arcadians, begun in 2004, photographs various families who live along the Hudson River. Deadpan in expression and draped in casual attire, the subjects sit in the foreground, in odd complement to the backdrop wherein nature is exaggerative, consuming and sublime. The series, she notes, is a contemporary take on the 19th Century Hudson School of painting. Each image depicts a family. When asked about the lead image, Ellis and Edward, 2005, which features two men; one black, and one white, Sadé simply asked, “What is family today?”
The interpretation of their relationship is left to the viewer, thus forcing us to reevaluate the modern concept of marriage. Sadé also defined the Greek word “Arcadia,” meaning utopia, or an unspoiled, harmonious wilderness, thus further perplexing the social definition of marriage.
Unlike Shuli’s series, the meaning behind Alexander Haessner’s series came as an afterthought. The photographer was attracted to the alluring essence of his subject matters and the work followed suit: He detailed to me, “You don’t see persons likes this every day, people who are so dominant in their character, in their aura…” Haessener’s striking editorial-like images lament the base wall of the second floor gallery. His six 4′ x 6′ photograph series is titled Archetypes, 2011. Half of Haessner’s photographs depict a white male. Despite being covered in tattoos, dirt and smeared make-up, he poses in an uncharacteristically feminine manner. His essence is graceful and passive as he invites the viewer to observe. The almost monochromatic scheme is disturbed by a pop of sky blue and complimentary orange paper ear. He is dubbed Anima, the sub archetype that represents a man’s subconscious femininity. The opposite is said for his counterpart, Animus: the archetype which represents a woman’s subconscious masculinity. The black woman’s clean and seductive physique is strong and powerful. Her dark skin contrasts the card board background. Her posture is commanding, and her gaze is so intense, it seemingly transcends her two-dimensional prison and observes the viewer. When I expressed the intensity I could feel from the image, Hessner responded, “I know that picture is the bomb.”
Yi placed conceptual and performance artist Michael Zheng’s work in multiple places as if his work was the glue to the exhibition. Zheng’s work is noted for creating situations in which the artist questions social norms as a way to give a new perspective on normal or routine behavior. His photographs, Bend and Split, depict the artist contorting his body to fit into the unconventional crevices of the walls of the Contemporary Jewish Museum. In one of his most prominent videos, Center of Europe, the artist stood between Lithuania’s two geographical centers of the Earth for nine hours, whistling in Morse code “Center of Europe” to make light of the ridiculousness of the claim. This simple performance ended up on the Lithuanian National Public TV Nightly news. Zheng’s most talked about piece of the night was his interactive “You, See I, Play.”
When asked about the interactive piece, which instructs individuals to do abnormal tasks, Dawn Alado, a junior at SUNY College at Old Westbury, responded, “It was a good icebreaker, it forced you out of your comfort zone.” Through it, she met and became acquainted with artist, Audrey Molinare. “It was good fun, you make contact with people… you relate to each other on an animal level,” Molinare said in reference to the seemingly enigmatic activity.
Genevieve White performed the new work Convex Mirror Lozenge Lounge while dressed as a veiled bride. Yi summarized White’s binding of her body and suffocating herself, whilst in a mirror-laden box with black taped bars as symbolizing the confinements of women in marriage. During opening night, students could be seen flocking the Campus Center window, with their camera phones, watching and recording White’s unconventional performance, perhaps too hesitant to enter the gallery.
Aaron Sheppard, a painter, burlesque dancer, and former drag queen performed The Modern Epimetheus, a live painting performance done in the nude. The message: Is Sheppard the painter, or the art itself? Featured in the second gallery is the artwork of Chan-Hyo Bae, whose photographic series, Existing in Costume, 2006, and Fairy Tale Projects, depicts Bae, a South Korean man dressed in ornamented Victorian female costumes. His intent is to deconstruct the stereotypical gender roles in which have “occupied the psyches of children for centuries,” Yi writes. Eric Van Hove contributes images from his ongoing Metagram series, wherein the artist is photographed painting Metagrams on the abdomens of women of various cultures. The abdomen is symbolic of the womb, and his presence in the cultured image plays on the historic ideal of Europeans inter-placing themselves in their depiction of non-European art.
The intent of this exhibition, in Yi’s words, is to challenge the public’s judgmental eye and encourage us to join the artists’ mode of open thinking: “For these artists, the body is an arena in which competing concepts of public morality and individual freedom vie for primacy. In the end, the body is the vehicle by which they escape rigid social conformity to reach liberation.” The exhibition runs until December 1, 2011, and although the performers have left, their titillating artwork remains on the walls of the Amelie A. Wallace gallery. They remain as a challenge, perhaps daring us young people to ponder if true self-expression can exist in a scrutinizing modern society? Intrigued? Stop by and check it out, it’s well worth the trip.