Sous Les Etoiles Gallery presents The Play and Staging of the Self: Five Photographers on Identity, featuring the work of five emerging and established photographers: Laia Abril, Jen Davis, Olya Ivanova, Lindsay Morris, and Chris Rijksen.
On Identity explores the construction of identity and its ongoing evolution, with a special emphasis on the play and staging of the self. Here, the act or experience, rather than biological history, is highlighted. As boundaries between socially and culturally constructed identities, including body modifications, are reexamined within diverse arrays of sexual and gender groups, the malleability of the self is revealed, and a new transparency of the function, role and position of identity emerges.
In this assembly of photographs, the construction of identity varies as radically as the modes of dress in Chris Rijksen’s Gender as a Performance series, in which the artist executes a fluid performance of self-portraiture in both traditionally masculine and feminine attire. In both Laia Abril’s Asexuals Project and Olya Ivanova’s Weirdo the individual is presented as part of a group identity in order to gain visibility, understanding, and legitimacy in an increasingly networked age. In contrast are scenes from Lindsay Morris’ You are You series, wherein gender-variant boys play out their interpretations of femininity at a gender-noncomforming summer camp, and Jen Davis’ webcam series, in which Davis pairs self-portraits and screenshots of “Alexi,” an invented object of desire. While diverse in both their approach and aesthetics, each series casts a fresh glance on the making and experience of identity in an ever-changing social landscape.
EXHIBITION
The Play and Staging of the Self : Five Photographers on Identity
Photographers : Laia Abril, Jen Davis, Olya Ivanova, Lindsay Morris, and Chris Rijksen
From September 10th to Octobre 25th, 2014
Talk with Lindsay Morris et Chris Rikjsen at the gallery on September 15, 7pm
Sous les étoiles Gallery
560 Broadway Suite 603
New York 10012
United States
