Review of 2010 MFA Photography Thesis Exhibition
Shannon Schmidt
Heather Christoffer, Nikk on the couch 2008
The 2010 Columbia College MFA Photography Thesis Exhibition at the Glass Curtain Gallery opened May 14th, featuring photographers: Leilani Wertens, David Oresick, Heather Christoffer, Jennifer Ray and Jason Reblando. The exhibition consists of large scale, colorful, archival inkjet prints and a DVD, The Dream Songs by David Oresick, projected on a large screen in the back of gallery separate from the photographs.
Along the far wall portraits by Heather Christoffer, line the gallery. Christoffer approaches her subjects’ personal identity by documenting the first year of testosterone treatment in Nikk and Liam as their bodies change from female-to-male. The more compelling photographs in the series, Nikk on the Couch 2009 and Nikk on the Couch 2008, depict Nikk in the odalisque style, harkening back to Ingres’ painting: La Grande Odalisque from 1814. This style has been the subject of feminist and post-colonial critique, due to its depiction of the female slave, chambermaid, and/or concubine. Christoffer references the odalisque composition, reclining Nikk on the couch facing the camera, yet dressing her subject in a blue-collar, auto mechanic shirt—twice, a year apart—rather than the typical chest baring pose. Christoffer’s portrayal combines the discourse of gender politics, as well as the physical and psychological struggle present in identity revelations.
Heather Christoffer, Nikk on the Couch 2009
Another photographer, Jennifer Ray, depicts traces of sexual encounters in public parks. Her more successful large photographs reveal natural settings: wide human foot paths made in the waist-high grassland, Summer Grass; the shot of the bare ground under a tree where converging paths describe the present human activity through the littered remains, Clearing; and close-ups of ferns, roots and detritus co-mingling with a wadded up pair of boxer shorts, Tommy. The subtler and less contrived photographs convey the activity of the surroundings in a fragmented narrative that leaves interesting gaps for the audience. While some of the more obvious photographs with condoms and wrappers appear staged and less entrenched or connected to the setting of the area. The photograph, Beneath the Cottonwoods, depicts a wonderful texture, rife with natural metaphors of the sexual encounters of humans and plants; the photograph conveys an awareness of the different activities existing in the surroundings while equalizing the natural and human elements.
Jennifer Ray, Tommy
Leilani Wertens photographs estate sales, where the objects of the former owners become an index or a collaged portrait of the deceased. Often times, Wertens utilizes the negative space surrounding the object or objects to provide insight into the setting of the residence, to illustrate a spectrum of accumulated articles or to express the overwhelming stillness of the object. The Archival Print: Clarence Street, Berwyn, IL, exemplifies the loss communicated in the composition: a lone measuring cup lying in a florally decorated drawer; the drawer is pulled out, indicating a tally of things yet to be finished or that which has been left behind. The image, Lee Avenue, Village of Downers Grove, suggests a diverse range of activity, both inside and outside of the estate. The SOS pads, the taxidermied oceanic fish, the washing machine and dryer—just to name of few—indicate the possible routine undertakings as well as the leisurely pursuits of the former owner/s. The contents of the estate become the markers of the activity, the indicators of tastes, the value of time spent and a guide to what was precious.
Leilani Wertens, Lee Avenue, Village of Downers Grove
2010 MFA Photography Thesis Exhibition
GLASS CURTAIN GALLERY
1104 S. Wabash Avenue; Chicago, IL
May 14 – June 12, 2010
M – F 9 a.m. – 5 p.m., Saturday by appointment
