Over the summer of 2021 I was the Visiting Artist in Residence in GSU's Welch School of Art & Design Galleries. This exhibition was the culmination of that residency, and included sculpture, video, photography, and drawing that continued my exploration of the female gaze on the male body.
"She Looks" is a video installation exhibited in Atlanta Contemporary's exhibition "She Is Here" (Aug 22, 2020 - January 31, 2021)
This video begins with documentation of the sculptural installation of this piece, which includes a 12' tall booth-like structure that visitors enter to view an 8 min long video that presents a naked male model in the empty Atlanta Contemporary galleries. After 40 seconds of documentation, this video cuts to the actual footage visitors view within the booth. In the installation, this video is played on a 4.5" x 8" screen that is integrated into the architecture.
The installation includes a two-way mirror, that functions like a window from the inside and mirror from the outside, highlighting the act of looking as it relates to both the surveillant gaze and conventions that form our self-identity.
Looking at a Naked Man was installed in a vacant building in Downtown Atlanta. The was up from February 29, 2020 - July 3, 2020.
Looking at a Naked Man includes ten videos that were made during multiple sessions with one of my male models. I directed him to perform a range of mundane activities that convey vulnerability with strength and beauty with awkwardness, sometimes overlaid with references to classical art. These videos flip tropes common to the male gaze, while presenting a perspective that moves beyond a simple reversal of the objectifying male gaze, conveying a mixture of desire, curiosity, and empathy. The presentation of these videos is an integral element of the installation. With strategies such as placing the videos within small boxes that require people to lean-in to view, or integrating mirrors into a display composition, viewing these videos engaged the viewer’s own body and created a hyper-awareness of the act of looking.
Unscene was on view at the Abroms-Engel Institute for the Visual Arts in Birmingham, AL from August 26 - December 14, 2019.
Unscene, emphasizes the ambiguous space between—between narrative moments, between past and present, between actor and audience. The scene presented is pulled apart with the use of fragmentation, scale shifts, and the integration of photography.
Screen was on view at the Mattress Factory in Pittsburgh from Sept 29 - April 4, 2018.
Screen is a multimedia installation that transforms the gallery into a theatrical setting with bold color, scale shifts, and strategies that engage the viewer as both voyeur and subject. Throughout the installation, various kinds of screens offer a mediated experience of the space, from literal screens on monitors that present delayed images of activity in the space to mirrors that reflect our own image back to us. These elements, along with sculptural figures, remind us of our own bodies and our position as both subject and object.
Stage Left was on view at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville's Downtown Gallery from January 24 - March 8, 2018.
“Stage left” is a term used in theatre to direct actors as they move around the stage. Though a term traditionally used to orient, it is used here as a foil to highlight the viewer’s disorientation within the fabricated space, while reinforcing theatrical associations with the installation. As people move through the gallery, spaces recede and reflect, sometimes offering a glimpse into another room, sometimes reflecting back the space one is in, and occasionally reflecting a reflection. Additionally, exposed studs on one side of each wall create a sense of front and back (or stage and backstage) that shifts throughout the gallery.
Objects such as sheets, blinds, and picture frames conjure the context of the home, charging this “stage” with a sense of a private space.
This piece, titled Pause, was in the group show of the same name at the Zuckerman Museum of Art in Kennesaw, GA (March 14 - June 6, 2015).