{"id":1510,"date":"2010-05-20T15:09:40","date_gmt":"2010-05-20T23:09:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.postdiluvianphoto.com\/blog\/?p=1510"},"modified":"2017-04-16T23:17:51","modified_gmt":"2017-04-17T06:17:51","slug":"mirror-image","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.postdiluvianphoto.com\/blog\/2010\/05\/20\/mirror-image-1510\/","title":{"rendered":"Mirror Image"},"content":{"rendered":"

This article originally appeared on May 20, 2010 in The Island. Michele Ellson, editor.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Alameda Artists offer “Mirror Image”<\/strong><\/p>\n

Frisbie St.<\/a> curators Becky Jaffe, Lanell Dike, and Carrie-Andrea Kaye have put together a show with remarkable depth and breadth, including the work of two dozen artists. I had the opportunity to preview it, and be forewarned: \u201cMirror Image\u201d<\/strong> \u2013 which features two artists with Alameda connections \u2013 is crazy intense. Demons are not willingly exorcised, and whether yours involves food or its rejection, age or illness, injury or self-injury, whether you are a man or woman, straight, gay, bisexual or transgender, there is something to push nearly everyone\u2019s emotional buttons.<\/p>\n

\"\"

“Left Leg Medial View” by Mercy Calman<\/p><\/div>\n

Mercy Calman<\/strong>, who lives in Alameda, is known for her brightly colored photographs of plants illuminated by natural light. She had participated in the previous two shows at Oakland\u2019s Frisbie St. and, wanting to continue exhibiting there, faced a daunting challenge: Photograph a human.<\/p>\n

She didn\u2019t have to go far to find her subject, photographing her own leg, which was seriously injured in a motorcycle accident. She provides three uncharacteristically black & white images. In the two on the periphery she is standing on palm bark, one foot tucked coyly behind the other. She is Imogen\u2019s Twinka in Yosemite. But in the large centerpiece \u2014 \u201cLeft Leg Medial View\u201d (she\u2019s also an RN) \u2014 her leg is gloriously extended in all its \u201cimperfect\u201d glory.<\/p>\n

Apparently lit by a simple flash, the light and shadow, textures, and composition are exquisite. It\u2019s Diane Arbus meets Edward Weston, and this synecdochical self-portrait is among the finest work in the exhibit.<\/p>\n

Bruce Temuchin Brown<\/strong> prefers to remain mum on how he creates his silver halide on copper plate photographs, which is entirely unnecessary; even if we knew his exact process it\u2019s doubtful that many could have produced \u201cMaxine.\u201d Viewing this nude photograph of an older, white-haired woman, I didn\u2019t notice that she had had a mastectomy until a curator pointed it out. Did I miss that because of the irregularities in the copper\u2019s surface? Was I trying to maintain respectful eye contact with the model (although she is looking away)? Or was I afraid to look at her body because of her age? Perhaps in this dismissing of her body lies the need to \u201ccome to terms\u201d with aging.<\/p>\n

There are several multimedia installations, including a collection of photos and recorded interviews by Becky Jaffe<\/strong>. These cover such personal battles as learning to accept one\u2019s body again while dealing with the side-effects of HIV medication. Another describes the fear of obesity after his young father\u2019s heart attack, while exhorting others to accept themselves as they are. He proclaims, \u201cMaybe your body is deteriorating. Embrace it! Maybe you\u2019re overweight. Embrace it!\u201d The models in this and all other exhibited works were invited to attend the opening, and encouraged to provide a statement of their own.<\/p>\n

\"Jon:

Jon: “I carry the weight of your fears,” from Elisa Salasin’s “You Carry Your Weight Well”<\/p><\/div>\n

Another is Elisa Salasin\u2019s<\/strong> \u201cYou Carry Your Weight Well.\u201d A slideshow of images, mostly self-portraits, they bear captions like \u201cI carry the weight of making everything perfect,\u201d \u201cI carry the weight of the inextricable tangle of love and loss,\u201d and \u201cI carry the weight of protecting my family.\u201d Salasin hopes that some who view the exhibit at its opening will be inspired to contribute their own photos and text to be included for the remainder of its three-day run.<\/p>\n

Several pieces will no doubt provoke discussion, possibly controversy. Two of these are G.M.M. Coghlan\u2019s<\/strong> series on cutting, and Gary Wilson\u2019s<\/strong> \u201cYada Yada Warden.\u201d When I first saw them I loved the former. The latter \u2026 not so much. By the next morning my opinions of them had swapped.<\/p>\n

Wilson\u2019s \u201cYada Yada Warden\u201d is a hammer supported by twin pieces of wood giving it the swagger of a bowlegged cowboy. He has affixed a tongue to the hammer\u2019s head and, to the tail, a parody of male genitals, complete with balls of steel. To me it represented sexual imperialism, male entitlement, perhaps even rape. However, this \u201ckinetic shamanic totem\u201d was intended as a tribute to Lenny Bruce\u2019s relentless hammering away against censorship. (Its title comes from a Lenny Bruce routine.) And perhaps the way he distilled Bruce down to those \u201cessentials\u201d reflects the way all men are summarized and objectified: A handyman. A turkey baster. The sculpture is wedged between Frank King\u2019s large format photos of a muscular, faceless man \u2014 \u201cHumiliation\u201d and \u201cWithout Consent\u201d \u2014 bound by rope, and perhaps \u201cmuscle bound,\u201d trapped by his own masculinity. Together they make a provocative statement, regardless of how you read them.<\/p>\n

Coghlan\u2019s series of photos of \u201ccutters\u201d was created for a project about fashion paraphernalia, and was intended to symbolize the extent to which people damage their bodies in the name of fashion and beauty. The photos packed an emotional wallop that sent me reeling. Literally. Only after I had recovered, sometime the next day, did I feel like I had been sucker punched. These photos were staged, the model bleeding the same Hershey\u2019s chocolate syrup that coursed through Janet Leigh\u2019s veins in \u201cPsycho.\u201d Moreover, the internal psychological mechanism behind self-injury is far removed from the external pressures behind foot binding, corseting, plastic surgery, and high heels. It is an interesting and well-intentioned but mixed metaphor which ultimately rings false.<\/p>\n

\""Visitation"

“Visitation” by Maia Huang<\/p><\/div>\n

Coghlan chose not to photograph actual cutters because he didn\u2019t want to support that behavior. But is photographing a person with anorexia, for example, \u201cencouraging her,\u201d or does it extend a measure of detachment and objectivity which may help her to understand the misperception of her body?<\/p>\n

The curators wrote in their statement, \u201cWe invite you to think critically, to debate, to listen, to change your mind\u2026.\u201d So I changed my mind. And just maybe I need to lighten up a little bit.<\/p>\n

Not all body image perceptions come from visible attributes. Maia Huang<\/strong> has two hidden disabilities, fibromyalgia and Crohn\u2019s disease. She writes in her statement, \u201cMy relationship to my body is a complicated one. On the one hand, I feel comfortable with the outward appearance of my body. I like the shape and physical features I\u2019ve been endowed with. However, inside is a different story.\u201d Huang believes that this has led to her career as an expressive arts therapist. Her mixed media painting, \u201cVisitation,\u201d portrays \u201ca visitation with the divine, in a Christ-like pose of shared suffering and transcendence.\u201d<\/p>\n

\""Skeletrol"

“Skeletrol” by Matthew Kowalski<\/p><\/div>\n

Matthew Kowalski<\/strong> is a member of the Alameda Art Association<\/a> and his work can also be found at their Alameda Towne Centre gallery. His inclusion in \u201cMirror Image\u201d stems from his own invisible affliction: Homeless for 25 years, Kowalski felt that no one could see him, that he had \u201cno face, no body that was acknowledged or validated.\u201d However, his art was visible and acted as his \u201cbody image.\u201d His \u201cRadical Relief\u201d abstract paintings intentionally rely upon found objects applied in print making as his contribution to reuse and repurposing. They are an expression of his positive self-image, and are the most emotionally as well as visually upbeat work in the show.<\/p>\n

Frisbie St. is located at 204 Frisbie Street in Oakland. \u201cMirror Image\u201d opens Friday, May 21, with a reception from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. The exhibit continues on Saturday, May 22 from 2 p.m. to 9 p.m., and the closing reception is on Sunday, May 23, from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.<\/p>\n

Michael Singman-Aste
\nPostdiluvian Photo<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This article originally appeared on May 20, 2010 in The Island. Michele Ellson, editor. Alameda Artists offer “Mirror Image” Frisbie St. curators Becky Jaffe, Lanell Dike, and Carrie-Andrea Kaye have put together a show with remarkable depth and breadth, including the work of two dozen artists. I had the opportunity to preview it, and be […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[23,6,4],"tags":[101,153,154,174,160,167,173,157,168,159,163,69,155,171,158,103,156,166,161,165,68,169,170,162,102,64,172],"class_list":["post-1510","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-artists","category-events","category-raves","tag-becky-jaffe","tag-bruce-temuchin-brown","tag-carrel-crawford","tag-carrie-andrea-kaye","tag-cj-grossman","tag-courtney-mccutcheon","tag-cutting","tag-deanne-emmons","tag-elisa-salasin","tag-evert-grobbelaar","tag-frank-king","tag-frisbie-st","tag-g-m-m-coghlan","tag-gary-wilson","tag-jj-fryzel","tag-lanell-dike","tag-lauren-davis","tag-linda-shanti-mccabe","tag-maia-huang","tag-matthew-kowalski","tag-mercy-calman","tag-michael-slack","tag-mollee-weaver","tag-molly-kate-taylor","tag-myles-boisen","tag-oakland","tag-scott-d-s-young"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pPxQO-om","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.postdiluvianphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1510","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.postdiluvianphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.postdiluvianphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.postdiluvianphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.postdiluvianphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1510"}],"version-history":[{"count":31,"href":"http:\/\/www.postdiluvianphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1510\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5513,"href":"http:\/\/www.postdiluvianphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1510\/revisions\/5513"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.postdiluvianphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1510"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.postdiluvianphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1510"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.postdiluvianphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1510"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}