Modification Notice: The seller last modified this listing Fri, 04/01/11 @ 12:57:06 PM EST.
Description Chromogenic print, signed certificate of authenticity provided, edion number 1/7.
Estimate .500 - 1000
Provenance Directly from the artist.
Measurements 24 x 20"
Condition Artwork is in excellent condition.
I am interested in the gendering of aesthetics and how the concept of beauty is tied to sexual objectification. I utilized male models–living representations of idealized masculinity–in order to explore the semiotics of the construction of gender. I was curious to see what the result would be if I photographed men using the unspoken rules that dictate the way women are conventionally posed in photographs and paintings. Shorter than most of the models, I used a to ladder to shoot them from above while directing my subjects to look at me only with a soft expression. Mostly I asked the models to look away– to be looked at. I asked them to hold their arms close to their bodies as if they felt vulnerable. This was not 'natural' for them. In my photographic approach, I strove to uncover aspects of their masculinity which might otherwise be downplayed for fear of appearing effeminate. The tactics of revealing a man's body, directing his emotions into the realm of what is considered feminine, while posing him in a relatively prone position resulted in a non-normative display of masculinity. As viewers, can we look at aestheticized vulnerability without inserting a gendered, sexual agenda onto it? Do beautiful men fall victim to the virgin/whore dichotomy or does their masculinity protect them from this reduction? What does a rejection of the feminized man reveal about misogyny?
Sophia Wallace is a New York City based conceptual artist working in photography and video. Wallace's practice addresses the shaping of gender, sexuality and race in historical and contemporary visual culture and what these visual narratives reveal about institutional political power and self-determination. The subject of beauty has been a major theme in her work as the notion of it, engenders much about colonial legacies and heterosexual, patriarchal market forces that have historically and continue to shape allegories of beauty in the west and globally. Working across narrative, documentary, fashion, and performance modes, Wallace merges approaches as part of her conceptual practice. She has received critical acclaim for her work including Critic's Pick at the Griffin Museum, honorable mention in MAGENTA Flash Forward, CENTER Project Competition, 100 Portraits–100 Photographers FotoWeekDC, American Photography AP-25, AP-24 and ARTslant. With an upcoming museum exhibition in Vienna at KUNSHALLE wein entitled No Fashion Please, she recently had a solo exhibition 'The New Masculine' at Leslie-Lohman Gallery in Soho. Additional shows in New York include TASCHEN Gallery, Umbrella Arts Gallery, Aperture Gallery and Sasha Wolf Gallery. She has also shown at Kopeikin Gallery, Carnegie Art Museum and at the Assembly Room in London. Editorial clients include The New York Times - Style Section, T-Magazine and The Guardian. Wallace earned a BA in Government with a minor in African American Studies at Smith College in 2000. She went on to attain a MA in Photography from New York University and the International Center of Photography in 2004. Born in Seattle in 1978 she currently resides in Brooklyn.
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