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VITO
ACCONCI, AMY ADLER, ELEANOR ANTIN, ALEX BAG, GUY BEN-NER, MIKE BIDLO,
GARTH BROOKS, DELIA BROWN, DAVID HENRY BROWN, KATHE BURKHART, ERIC DOERINGER,
CHARLIE FRIEDMAN, AUNRICO GATSON, ANTHONY GIOCOLEA, RUPERT GOLDSWORTHY,
LEE GORDON, KAREN HEAGLE, MICHELLE HINES, JONATHAN HOROWITZ, JANE KAPLOWITZ,
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KURT
KAUPER, JOHN KELLY, ALIX LAMBERT, NIKKI LEE, SHERRY MILLNER, LAUREL NAKADATE,
ADRIAN PIPER, CARL POPE, TOM SANFORD, KIKI SEROR, MATT SAUNDERS, CINDY
SHERMAN, LAURIE SIMMONS, GUY RICHARDS SMIT, MICHAEL SMITH, HIROSHI SUNAIRI,
IKE UDE, ANDY WARHOL, JOHN WATERS, MAY WILSON, HANNAH WILKE.
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The Countess de Castiglione, Marcel Duchamp, Claude Cahun, Andy Warhol,
Adrian Piper, Cindy Sherman. Artists have been representing themselves
as or through other people in their work for over 100 years. The tradition
continues; alter egos abound in shows from Williamsburg to Chelsea and
in museums everywhere. There are so many generations of artists exploring
these issues, that if you think you should have been in this show, you
are probably right.
The idea of performing persona has informed all aspects of thinking about
the self within post-modern culture. The very concept of "self" has come
to be seen not as a specific essence but as a series of performative options,
something to be tried on, worn or discarded in as many variations as one
wishes at any time one chooses. Concepts of race, ethnicity, gender and
sexuality have changed dramatically within this context over the last
30 years. Photography, video, and performance are natural mediums for
the subject that artists since the 70šs have been exploring.
While so many photographers and performance artists transform their own
bodies in their work, some painters find their alter egos ready-made in
the media. For them, pop culture stars function as they do for most people,
aspirational models and heroes. Why not paint these objects of identification
as a way of describing oneself? In the supplicant position of fan these
painters (deliberately or not) challenge the heroic essentialism of painting
that some still hold dear. Perhaps in this way, issues of post-modern
identity that so much performance and photo work have examined have crept
into the recalcitrant practice of painting and opened it up a bit.
Culture (music, fashion, movies, art, literature, TV, even cyberspace)
provides the common language for this discussion. Within it we look for
our reflections and imagine our power. The artists in this show re-envision
themselves through culturešs lens. The resulting work is possible only
when everything one can be is an option, at least in onešs imagination.
Deborah Kass April 2002
Special Thanks to: The Outpost, Schroeder Romero, Claudia Joskowicz, and
The Sculpture Center.
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