Some of the best photographs are spontaneous: the result of being in the right place at the right time. But at the other end of the spectrum, there are photographs that are purposely, meticulously staged. And that’s the common theme uniting two new solo shows at CPW in Kingston, New York right now.
On the face of it, these pictures don’t seem to have anything in common. In Pixy Liao’s funny and intimate images, she and her partner act out a series of domestic scenes. Tanya Marcuse’s, meanwhile, are dense, dark and unsettling concoctions of antlers, bones, roots, flowers and fire.
What unites them, though, is that neither photographer left anything to chance. Furthermore, both are packed with the kind of delicious detail that rewards slow, careful and inquisitive viewing.
Flipping the power dynamic
Liao, a Chinese artist who lives in New York, has been making staged self-portraits with her partner, the Japanese-born artist and musician known as Moro, for almost 20 years now. Typically, these images flip the typical power dynamics of straight couples, and of artist and muse.
In one, Moro lies semi-naked across a kitchen table between a plate of toast and half a grapefruit, a papaya on his hip, while Liao sits behind him with a spoon. In another, she carries him over her shoulder like a sack of laundry, through an impeccably tidy living room.
You’ll notice the shutter release cable in almost every frame. Sometimes it’s in Liao’s hand, sometimes in Moro’s. It’s a neat visual joke, and means you’re never sure who’s in charge of the picture.
Titled Relationship Material, their exhibition at CPW – originally organized by the Art Institute of Chicago – brings together color photographs, soft sculptures and music videos from PIMO, the offbeat music duo the pair formed together.
Beauty and decay
Marcuse, who teaches photography at Bard College in New York, puts a lot of effort into planning her images too. For her series Woven: An Ecological Tapestry (2015-2020), she spent months gathering, arranging, painting, burning and transplanting natural materials to create vast tableaux of forest floor.
Characteristically, she combines things that never naturally appear together: spring growth in autumn landscapes, flowers and animals encased in ice, birds buried in the earth. The result is a world whose natural rhythms have been knocked out of sync, a commentary on climate change.
“Through these constructed ecologies, I attempt to hold together beauty and terror, reverence, and grief,” says Marcuse. “Woven is a meditation on the fragile worlds we are in the process of undoing.”
Eight key images from Woven are on show, alongside Frame, a 5 x 10-foot installation built from wood and found flora and fauna. The latter keep drying, decaying and decomposing throughout the run, making this one exhibition that rewards more than a single visit.
Pixy Liao: Relationship Material and Tanya Marcuse: Woven, An Ecological Tapestry are at CPW, 25 Dederick Street, Kingston, NY, until January 17. Also on show until November 1 is Closeness, a student exhibition by Phocus, Vassar College’s photography club and community darkroom, exploring how the presence of a camera changes a moment. CPW is open Thursday to Sunday, 11am to 5pm, and admission is free.
Author: Tom May
Source: DigitalCameraWorld
Reviewed By: Editorial Team
