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11/7/2003

The Mirror's Body

Martinez Gallery, New York

Martinez Gallery is pleased to present the photography of Elana Levin and Robin X. These two artists, whose principal subject is the human body and its erotic possibilities, will display their work here through August 17 in the show 'In the Mirror's Body,' curated by Antonio Zaya.

The works of Levin and Robin X deal with the same essential problem of identity and self-awareness, as seen through two main physical forms: mine and yours. This dilemma springs from what artist and scholar Victor Burgin refers to as the 'mirror phase' of development; between six and 18 months of age, the child cannot distinguish between itself and those around it. Its physical universe is not centered on its own body; rather fragmented, allowing a sense of unity between all bodies without any need for a defined 'I.'

This universal understanding is lost with the opening of the symbolic world - language - and with awakening sensitivity to differences. According to psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan, identity-forming is simultaneous to great visual advances. And this, he suggests, is also the moment of creating an imaginary identity, a false role in a misunderstood construction of the world, leading to what amounts to a illusory creation of the 'self.'

'In the Mirror's Body' addresses this problem by a process of reduction, showing us once again the faceless, identity-free phase, bringing us back to separation and fragmentation, destroying our long-held assumptions about corporeal unity. The work, essentially, brings us, if momentarily, back to the 'mirror phase,' and once this occurs, new questions, particularly about sexuality, which suddenly becomes objectified, obscene, reasonable desire, losing all poetic interpretation.

Levin's black and white photos and color projections, on first glance, appear to be widely different, in terms of models and intentionality. But taken as a whole, they are essentially working on common themes. The fetishism and narcissism in the works make a sarcastic commentary upon themselves, while bringing into doubt their own honesty, and, indeed, the very edges of the negative that encases them. Meanwhile, Robin X's photos create an entire phallocentric system of commentary, giving a cock, an arm, the pubic, in suspension, a true kind of protagonist's role, in all its different presentations.

Seen together, the work of these two artists surpasses the simple classification of gender photography. Through the process of fragmentation, they hang on the wall, questioning our desires, instincts and passions, putting us once again before the mirror, our first view of the universe.

Image: a work by Robin X

opening: JULY 12 2003, 8 PM
after party: Bobbito aka Cucumber Slice & Rich Medina from 10 PM

Gallery Hours: 1 pm - 10 pm Thurs - Sat, 1 pm - 7 pm Sun

Lounge/Music/Events: 7 pm - 4 am

Martinez gallery
37 Greenpoint Avenue
Brooklyn, New York 11222
t 718 706 0606

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