Talia Chetrit
Bodies in trouble

Sep 6th – Oct 18th, 2012
Sies + Höke, Düsseldorf

Copyright Sies + Höke, Düsseldorf; Photo Achim Kukulies, Düsseldorf
Copyright Sies + Höke, Düsseldorf; Photo Achim Kukulies, Düsseldorf
Copyright Sies + Höke, Düsseldorf; Photo Achim Kukulies, Düsseldorf
Copyright Sies + Höke, Düsseldorf; Photo Achim Kukulies, Düsseldorf
Copyright Sies + Höke, Düsseldorf; Photo Achim Kukulies, Düsseldorf
Digital C-Print
Each 76 x 61 cm
Edition of 4 + 2 AP
Copyright Sies + Höke, Düsseldorf; Photo Achim Kukulies, Düsseldorf
Copyright Sies + Höke, Düsseldorf; Photo Achim Kukulies, Düsseldorf

The exhibition is elaborated in three movements through a series of self-portraits. In the black and white series "Hands on Body" Chetrit introduces the use of the male anatomy, specifically the hands. Each frame depicts a male hand gripping, pushing into and engaging with a swath of black velvet fabric. A female form beneath the fabric is revealed by the handsʼ shifting placement and the black negative space. These images start as a portrait of a hand and progress to an encounter between a man and woman.

The implied presence of the body continues in a photograph documenting the trace left where the “Hands on Body” images were created.

Two color works are pictured of Chetrit staged in a domestic setting multiplied in a mirror, which unfolds a doubling. Never able to clearly see Chetrit caught in motion, it is uncertain whether the subject is coming or going and the physiological tension widens.

Finally, Chetrit presents an outdoor scene reminiscent of classical street photographs. The camera, from a high city building, points down on the street, where the artist is seen looking back up to the camera from a far distance. Just out of view a hand reaches for Chetritʼs arm, reintroducing the male subject.

The show is equally severed, disjointed in narrative, nodding to time period/ director/ movement; an anti-narrative film. This effect is achieved through another form of omission. Like her discrete works, much is carefully edited out. The conflation of these loaded but ambiguous images is where narrative takes shape.

About Talia Chetrit

New York based artist Talia Chetrit (*1982) explores what remains hidden in the practice and mechanisms of photography.

Artworks

Previous Exhibition