23/5/2002
Portraits as performance
CACV, Virginia Beach
The exhibition will examine a pervasive trend in recent photographic portraiture, addressing how it is used as a vehicle of self-exploration and cultural commentary by some of the most innovative photographers working today.
Co-organized by the
HWAC and the
Contemporary Art Center
of Virginia (CAC), Portrait
as Performance will open
in Richmond in spring
2002 and then travel to
Virginia Beach for the
summer.
The exhibition
will examine a pervasive
trend in recent
photographic portraiture,
addressing how it is used
as a vehicle of
self-exploration and
cultural commentary by
some of the most
innovative photographers
working today.
A staple of photography since its invention in 1839, the portrait
has served a multitude of purposes over the last century and a
half. The history of the medium contains countless examples
that have been in one sense or another staged and enacted,
beginning with the very first fictional photograph: Hippolyte
Baynard's Self-Portrait as a Drowned Man from 1840.
Performative elements variously shape the portraits in this
exhibition, sometimes in ways peculiar to our postmodern era.
The widespread investigation into the complex nature of
photographic representation taking place today has helped foster
the increasingly important and variegated role that fabrication
plays in the work of many contemporary photographers. This
development materializes in the seemingly naturalistic but highly
choreographed portraits of Philip-Lorca diCorcia and Sam
Taylor-Wood and in the work of Cindy Sherman and Yasumasa
Morimura, whose elaborate guises address the impact of
popular-culture imagery on our perceptions of reality.
Tseng Kwong Chi, Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons, and Shirin
Neshat tackle cultural difference and identity by "performing"
portraits that frequently debunk deeply entrenched stereotypes.
Carrie Mae Weem's protagonist acts out a domestic drama set
around the kitchen table, while John Coplans and Francesca
Woodman tap the gestural potential of their bodies to create
evocative portraits in which the human face is largely absent.
Reconfiguring a mechanical sculpture rendered as a miniature
self-portrait, Elizabeth King has worked with photographer
Katherine Wetzel to compose an extended visual essay on how
human consciousness arises from the physical self.
Often placing themselves in front of the camera, the
photographers discussed here characteristically exert
tremendous effort to enact their images. Whether costumed or
not, these artists, their surrogates, and their various other human
subjects assume carefully conceived personas that move beyond
the purely personal to tackle themes and issues central to
contemporary life. Not surprisingly, their work reveals ever more
pronounced affinities with performance-based media like film and
theater, as well as other visual art forms like painting and
sculpture.
Rather than a comprehensive survey, this exhibition will focus
instead on a select group of practitioners who have expanded the
formal and conceptual aspects of portraiture by consistently
incorporating elements of performance in their photographs.
This exhibition is co-curated by Ashley Kistler of the Hand
Workshop Art Center in Richmond, Virginia and Carla Hanzal of
the Contemporary Art Center of Virginia.
May 24-June 23, 2002
Acting Out: Theatrical Self Portraits
Third in the series of teen photo essays, high school students dramatize aspects of their personal identities through the genre of theatrical self-portraiture.
CACV
The Contemporary Art Center
2200 Parks Avenue, Virginia Beach, Virginia