Kevin Clarke
dal 7/12/2005 al 13/1/2006
Segnalato da
7/12/2005
Kevin Clarke
Sara Tecchia Roma New York, New York
Becoming Human: New Conceptual Portraits and Spiritual Machines. The artist continues his focus on the indefinable and uncapturable aspects of his sitters’ representation. He redefines the portrait as a process and record of the artist’s personal responses to the subject, visualizing his subjects through photographic means that are frankly subjective and transformative.
Becoming Human: New Conceptual Portraits and Spiritual Machines
Exploring themes of ambient portraiture, Clarke continues his
intuitive focus on the indefinable and uncapturable aspects of his
sitters’ representation. He redefines the portrait as a process and
record of the artist’s personal responses to the subject,
visualizing his subjects through photographic means that are frankly
subjective and transformative. Abandoning traditional photography’s
role of naturalistic representation, landscapes, objects, DNA
sequences, shadows and light, even anthropomorphic ciphers are evoked
and incorporated in his portraits. Instead, he works from the memory
of his personal encounters with the sitter; the portrait subjects are
conceptualized, not seen.
“I come to visit the person, and spend some time with them,"
Clarke explains. “I ask questions, but they are not about heredity
and they are not indiscrete. I try to understand something about the
person. This happens "between the lines", in other words in an
indirect way. Meanwhile a few hairs are gently removed with the tiny
root attached, painlessly. The DNA is sequenced at a lab and a
representation in graph and letterform is produced. After reflecting,
I create a photographic image, which I work on and combine with the
letters."
With this exhibition, Clarke premieres a number of recent works,
including Study for a Portrait of Chuck Close, which combines the
specific DNA of the celebrated portrait painter with an image that
celebrates the humanness with which Close overcomes his physical
limitations. Portrait of Steve Cannon similarly riffs on the blind
gallerist’s metamorphosis. Schwesinger Family Portrait reveals a
totally opposite approach by incorporating multiple DNA sequences
displayed vertically, the colorful sequences themselves remaining the
sole pictorial content of the work.
Clarke also introduces new three-dimensional works, his Spiritual
Machines. These sculptures invert the function of the common
lawnmower while drawing it into figuration. Here, Nature triumphs
over the acculturating tool while contradicting the view of DNA as a
purely mechanical force of individuation. The axis and rotation
implicit in the lawnmower’s mechanics, much like the axial symmetry
of the double helix, enhance the sensation of transformative
becoming, becoming human.
A graduate of Cooper Union, Clarke’s early explorations on
portraiture included a sociological description of a large Berlin
department store, Kaufhauswelt (Schirmer & Mosel, 1980), and his
acclaimed project The Red Couch, a Portrait of America (Alfred van
der Marck Editions, 1984), which used a simple sofa to uncover the
heart of American identity. His work can be found in numerous
permanent collections, including The Brooklyn Museum, The Smithsonian
Institute, ICP, the Coca-Cola Collection and others. Clarke continues
to use genetic technology in ways that deepen our understanding of
the human condition.
DNA sequences in this exhibition were provided by Seqwright, Inc. of
Houston, Texas.
Reception: Thursday, December 8th, 2005, 6 to 8pm
Sara Tecchia Roma New York
529 West 20th Street, Second floor - New York
Gallery hours: Tuesday through Saturday,10am—6pm